Sisters Fight for the Right... to Banana!

Miss Jill and Mister John were relaxing in the back yard this afternoon when Miss Jill thought about giving her loving husband a banana. Quickly though Prince Phillip hopped over to say Hola to the two. He took a few bites and then hopped away. For a rabbit who is typically shy of humans, he clearly loves bananas enough to hang around humans to eat more. The sisters though are worth a lot more trouble... or humor.

Upon getting a piece, the two chased each other in circles playing "grab the banana from the other girl's mouth." These two are so engrossed in the chase that they often forget to eat the banana piece or even worse, they drop it and the other gets it and the game of chase goes in reverse.

Oddly though today had a different variation. Ruby Jane, our veritable Brown Bear, grabbed the piece of banana and was irritated that her fluffier sister Root Beer Float was chasing her. So she turned around -- with banana in mouth -- and started charging at her sister. What ensued was a furried frenzy of frenetic proportions. Within minutes peace ruled the backyard and they flopped beside each other. At one point Prince Phillip actually came in and broke up the squabble. While he knew they were not fighting over him, he doesn't like to see young girls beat each other up for relatively no reason (although bananas are quite honorable).

Shortly after Miss Jill and Mister John watched this incredible rabbit drama, Miss Jill reached over to steal a pretzel with peanut butter inside (oh so delish!) but Mister John slapped her hand and then ran away with the bag in his hand. Miss Jill, knowing she could not catch up to the fleet-footed Mister John, sat there and cleaned her ears.

Phillip Prepares for World Cup Quarterfinal

As to be expected, Prince Phillip is ecstatic about his Spanish soccer team advancing to the quarterfinals. He fully expects them to take down the lowly peasants of Paraguay.

He was initially upset that Sports Illustrated picked Spain to win the World Cup this year. He learned from Mister John that any time SI picks you for anything, you're destined to fail. Do note that back in 1995, SI did pick UCLA to win the basketball title that year and they did.

Phillip was a bit peeved last summer when Spain lost to the U.S. (of all teams!) in a tournament. He was ridiculed by the rest of the rabbits in the backyard even though they know nothing about soccer (other than it's on a tasty green pitch). His dear beloved Jane consoled him though. She was always there for him. Such a great princess.

Needless to say, Phillip (who is usually quite a hand's off sort of guy) will be sitting inside with Mister John during the quarterfinal game on Saturday morning.

Meet Clyde, Our New Tree

As Jill and I become more nimble with our not-so-green thumbs, we have adopted a new tree into the household. We now have our third camphor tree. The first has always been in the front yard and the second was planted about 10 years ago and provides shade to the back corner of the house. This third camphor tree named Clyde after my grandfather (I was named after my other grandfather) and sits in the middle of the yard where an elm resided until it was uprooted to make play for an amateur radio (ham) tower in 1984.

Clyde seems to be doing quite well other than the rabbit-oriented scrapes and bruises. One brown bear by the name of Ruby Jane has been nibbling at Clyde's bark so we wrapped it in netting this afternoon. Ultimately, he will be a great shade-making addition to the backyard.