I forgot to mention that on Thursday I saw the dermatologist for a simple procedure to remove and annoying skin tag from my right eyelid. It was fairly small, but at times I could see it at the edge of my vision, and it seemed to be growing. The procedure lasted all of 90 seconds: a shot of a local anesthetic, a quick cut with a scalpel, and some cauterization to seal it up. The doctor is sure it’s just a skin tag, but she sent it to the lab just to be sure.

This morning I went hiking at Mission Peak with Mary and her hiking crew. It was the first time I went hiking for a while, but I did ok. My knees didn’t bother me much, but a blister on my little toe slowed me down at the end. I guess I’ll need to toughen up so we can do some backpacking this year.

After hiking, we went through Alviso to visit the white bunny we discovered last weekend. Apparently the people we saw there trying to catch it last weekend did not succeed and it also turns out there are two bunnies! They are really cute (see picture on left). We didn’t seem them on our first pass by, but we dropped off a little spinach and went to Don Edwards. After a walk around the park, we went back and waited near where we had placed the spinach. We saw one come out and eat some of the spinach. After a while, Mary got out of the car and made a successful attempt to feed the bunny. They seem content with the local vegetation, but they seemed to enjoy the spinach a bit more. We know we shouldn’t feed wild animals, but we haven’t decided what rules apply here. They seem quite content in their new home, but they definitely stick out like a sore thumb. It’s hard to say how long they will manage to avoid predators. At least they found a nice home borough excavated by the local ground squirrels. I have more pictures of the bunnies in my gallery.

After our visit withe the bunnies, we came home to watch the Collegiate Rugby National Championship match between Cal and BYU. The match was played at Stanford, but I was too lazy to go to the game. I chose instead watch it on the internet on the new USA Rugby Network. I only caught the second half, but it was already over by then anyway since Cal was up 45-0. Cal went on to win their fifth strait national title, 59-7.

It sounds like Earth Hour last week was fairly successful. As I understand, some cities had more than double the electricity reduction as they were hoping for. As for Mary and I , we turned out the lights at 8pm sharp. We had a rechargeable battery powered fluorescent lantern, but we just sat and chatted in the dark for about 15 minutes. Eventually we cheated and went out to eat. Hopefully this event managed to raise some awareness that will start to carry over in to every day life.

On Saturday, Mary and I started the day with our usual: I played hoops and Mary went hiking. For lunch we made some chicken with Jamaican jerk marinade. It was pretty good. In the evening we went to an event called The Gospel Zone at a church in downtown San Jose. The event was a combined concert of the Hope of Glory Mass Choir (picture on left) from the Maranatha Christian Center and the Low Ding Zone from the Bay Bells (a handbell ensemble). I have seen the Hope of Glory choir before, and I enjoy them very much. They sing with such power and control. I had never seen a handbell ensemble before, though it is pretty much what you would expect, a group of people ringing bells by hand and playing music together. Low Ding Zone is interesting in that they only play the “big bells” of middle-C and lower (see the picture on the right showing Mary and one of the larger bells). They were interesting, but over-powered by the choir.

On Sunday Mary went for another hike and I did a bit of work. In the afternoon we headed towards downtown for lunch and coffee. In the evening we went to see a professional lacrosse match between the San Jose Stealth and the Portland LumberJax of the National Lacrosse League. I had heard about the Stealth a while ago, but had never been to a game (nor had I been to any lacrosse match before). This league is indoor (the Stealth play at the HP Pavilion). There is also an outdoor league called Major League Lacrosse. The game was pretty entertaining, but in the end the Stealth lost to the Jax 12-10.