A New Hobby

Yesterday evening was a bit of a on-event ... I've decided to really try house-training the bunnies (on the nights before the maid comes, until they get the hang of it obviously!). It actually went pretty well. The real problem we have is that because they have a multi-storey hutch, they think jumping up on everything in the house is completely natural ... I think I have somehow created mountain-rabbits ;) And Lily seems to have a thing for the couch ... which usually we're sitting on so is not much of an issue, but we were both on our computers at the dining room table for most of last night and she wouldn't let Coal or Rex up onto the couch with her and was digging away for dear life - I dunno where she thought it'd get her! Haha. Anyway, so I'm off to acquire a proper litter tray for them on the weekend and will attempt to house-train them so they can spend more time inside with us :) Which will be lovely. I think bunnies could make even better pets than ours do ... from what I've heard when people only have one bunny and they live in the house they get almost like a dog. But we have 3 and ours are definitely more keen on bunny-companionship than human, making them a little more wild, I think. Especially Lily as she spent no time bonding with us without another bunny around. Anyhoo will see how it goes.

As I said I spent most of yesterday evening on the computer ... a weird thing to do for someone who spends all day in front of one already! (Well, I think it's weird and I can assure you it doesn't not happen too often!). I have a new project. I'm making a photo wall. I've already started choosing the photos, and I want to buy one new frame every month (at least!) after the holidays are all paid (so starting next month only then ...) and hang them on the wide open wall in the area between out lounge & dining room (it's really just one big room so not as weird as it sounds). And then, as you may already know, I have a bit of an obsession with genealogy, so I decided I wanted to do one of those circular family tree's to print and get framed and put up on the wall too. Harder than it sounds, let me assure you! All the ones I found online cost money (not *that* much, but I can only expect that shipping to SA will add on about a bajillion percent) and aren't quite what I'm looking for (although the ones I linked are probably the closest to the picture in my mind). So in the mean time while trying to figure out what to do about that, I figured I'd start getting the data together. And that's taken about 2 evenings. Yesterday just before bed, Varen convinced me to try out Gramps (open-source linux-based Genealogy software). So far (a mere 15 - 20 minutes in) I'm loving it. *AND* you can generate circular charts ... I just have to figure out if I can get the styling right tho.

No doubt I'll spend the next few weeks capturing all the family tree data I have - and it is *a lot*, because we have had two avid genealogists on different sides on the family collecting data. On the one line I have from myself, picure me marked in column A on a spreadsheet, to column Z! It's a long way back, we're talking back to people who were born in the 1200's here, people. I love it and find it all so fascinating. Especially how many times the tree joins up with itself (and we, like I imagine most early South African families, have plenty of that, let me tell you!).

I am very excited now that I have a new project for my spare time at home ... although I have been thru genealogical phases before (we're talking days spent at the Archives in Cape Town trying to collect data!) and I expect they'll continue thruout my life :) Part of me wonders if my circular chart will ever actually be finished because on other sides of the family we are missing plenty of data - I'm hoping the internet is more up-to-date these days and can at least help me find the right people to speak to to track down long-ago death certificates! And if it never get's finished, will my photo-wall begin (I had sort of imagine this to be a kind of center point for it) ... but I guess I can always hang it somewhere else in the house :)