Lapins, Neon Food Coloring, and Misadventures in Produce

Lapin is French for rabbit, one of which I am now a Grandmother to. Yep. My daughter now owns the class bunny. Her teacher could no longer have him and while other kids certainly wanted him, we were the only ones capable apparently. His name is Bunnicula, just like in the story. Over here, students are in teams not grades. Each student spends two years in the same team before moving on to the next level. Last year, Bunnicula's name was Darla...until she went to the vet and it was discovered that she was a he. The class voted and now it's Bunnicula. And he is currently pushing his little wooden house and food dishes around in his cage in my daughter's bedroom. He's really pretty cute, white with what closely resembles dribbles of coffee on his fur, except the coffee stains won't leave. Best of all, he's quiet. No racing through the house, no barking to be let in or out, and no hogging my bed like my dog is prone to do. Of course, the dog's favorite past time is playing 'get the bunnies' when we go for walks or whatever, so there is some trepidation that he's going to try to play 'get Bunnicula' while we're gone one of these days. As of right now, the dog seems to be ignoring the rabbit except for their first meeting after school yesterday when the bunny came home. The dog sniffed the box, smelled bunny, and followed me closely until he saw me put the bunny into the cage at which point he sniffed, grimaced, and sneezed violently about 6 times before going in and stretching out on my bed. The bunny came with everything he needs and then some, by the way. I had no idea that bunnies had so many toys. He has a little wooden hut thing that was once painted in the primary colors, but since he chews in incessantly, it looks like a tornado victim. He has two little wooden chew treats. One used to be a yellow dolphin, but now looks more like a twisted banana and one that is an orange triceratops. He also came with nail clippers, food, treats, timothy hay (which smells kind of odd), special bunny litter, bowls, water bottle, and cage. My daughter also seems to think that he can be trained to a collar and leash. Claims to have read it in a book somewhere. I can't wait to see this...and see how long it takes before "Gramma" is the only one who even looks at the poor guy. I'm already responsible for making sure that we have carrots and lettuce for treats once a week. Which leads me into...Misadventures in Produce! Knowing that Bunnicula would be coming home yesterday, I dropped into the store for carrots and a few other odds and ends we needed. While I am doing price comparisons on some tomatoes, I feel something rather round and hard poking me just above my butt. (Don't get perverted...I knew it was a cucumber) When I look, one of the guys who had been tortured through Shakespeare with me was jabbing me with his zuccini and smiling like lunatic the whole time. I smiled too, because he's as gay as Truman Capote and completely safe, and gave him a very very playful and gentle bop on the arm. It seems, however, that Jeff has no center of gravity and promptly tipped over into a peach display which collapsed. I tried to grab him, tripped over my own feet and knocked down half the tomatoes, a third of the citrus fruit, and cleared a tabletop display of baked goods when I pulled the tablecloth off trying to gain my own balance. We were completely embarrassed! We offered to help clean up and pay for damages, but the clerks just shook their heads and sent us on our way. I can't be positive, but I think at least one of them was trying not to laugh and another one was so relieved to see us walk away without damaging anything else that he started to cry.

By the way, Queenie turned me onto neon food coloring, since I obviously live in a cave and don't pay attention. At any rate, I recently made tie-dyed cakes for my son's school, which were so well received that I'm under command to make at least one for each school activity until he graduates. Well, his end-of-the-year picnic was today. Of course, I got about four hours notice to make something. So I whipped out a fudge marble cake mix and decided that would work. I made the batter like normal, but added a whole bottle of neon green food color after taking out the requisite 1 cup for the fudge part. I mixed the fudge part up. It was very dark brown. So, I grabbed the neon blue. Did you know that you can dye chocolate? I had no idea. That fudge stuff was so dark blue in the bowl it looked like the midnight sky. Then I made it like normal. I can't wait to hear how it goes over. Especially since I frosted it with regular chocolate frosting and no one will notice it's colored cake. My son is supposed to take pictures for me. If I could figure out how to load them up, I'd show you all the tie-dye cakes and this one. Neon food coloring is so much fun!