Parrot Musings

I completed my 9th marathon yesterday, in ridiculously hot conditions. It was at least 30 degrees warmer than I would have liked. My time was 21 minutes slower than last year's personal best. It's frustrating because I was actually better trained and in better shape than last year and was hoping to do better. However, since this year's average time was 21 minutes slower than last year's average time (for all finishers in this marathon), I certainly wasn't alone! And this gives me motivation to train even harder for next year. Apart from some minor chaffing under my armpits and a slight heat rash on my thighs, I am no worse for wear! And these will be healed in a few days.

Not too many parrot stories from over the weekend -- the marathon was my biggest priority -- but here are Rocky and Thomas looking at a catalog we received in the mail. Is Rocky helping him to pick out Christmas presents?

Also, as usual, our kitchen table is full of mail and miscellaneous stuff (including Rocky's step up stick!), but as soon as Rocky heard this song come on the radio, he started dancing. That is him clicking near the end. This guy has rhythm!

I don't have any photos to illustrate this (other than a random cute picture of Max begging for attention), but I was on the phone with a friend last night. I went into the bathroom to talk because Max doesn't like it when I'm on the phone for more than about 2 minutes (I should be paying attention to her!) and she starts buzzing me. This is how well that worked: Max flies down to the floor, knocks at the door with her beak for a pretty long time. I open the door, toss her back to her stand. Repeat at least 10 times!

And finally, we did our approximately quarterly overhaul of the aquarium. Thomas's main passion in our aquarium is the plants. He fertilizes them and has a CO2 reactor running to keep them happy. The fish are an afterthought for him. The plants grow so well that every quarter or so we have to take out huge amounts of plants to give the fish more room to swim. The two giant sword plants that Thomas is holding, along with at least 20 of their baby sword plants were taken to a local fish store as we feel bad about throwing the plants away! The fish were so happy after the cleaning!

In other aquarium news, we have lost a few more fish, unfortunately. This is frustrating because we are frequently testing the water and try to provide them with the best environment possible. The remaining fish all seem healthy, and we will not be adding any fish for a long time. All 3 clown loaches have been hanging out together (yea!) and have made a noticeable dent in our snail population (the main reason we added them to the tank). Here is a picture of our tank after the major cleaning.