All's well that ends well

Last night, Max was throwing a fit about something. I don't remember what her fit was about -- most likely she was upset that parrots other than her were receiving attention. She flew over to the table and started destroying the newspaper. That'll show me!
But then she got some melon and all was well with the world again...
(Sorry I happened to catch her eye in mid-blink -- it looks kind of gross!) She does have tantrums occasionally, but luckily they are short-lived and then she's back to her normal personality! Also -- that is a giant piece of melon and much bigger than we would have given her. She grabbed it out of the bowl when Thomas's back was turned. We got it away from her after she had an appropriate amount. How could she even lift a piece that big? It's almost the size of her head!

Rocky is in nesting mode. He's found a new place to nest -- the middle level of the cart where we store the parrots' food. We keep a blanket there in case we want to cover up while on the couch (have not had to use this for months, obviously!) He even brought some wood pieces up to chip.

Once again, I feel the need to put a bit of a disclaimer about Rocky's nesting. While I wouldn't say we encourage him to nest, we definitely don't discourage him, either. That's a decision we've made, knowing him. We discourage our female parrots from nesting (we don't want to deal with egg-binding issues), and would discourage any of our males if adverse behaviors happened as a result of the nesting. Rocky enjoys this diversion, it keeps him busy, and it has no impact on his behavior, so we allow it. He's just being a bird!I had to move this plant to another location in our house because I didn't want it to suffer death-by-caique, but I thought this picture was kind of cute. It almost looks as though we're growing a caique -- how many days until the harvest?Stella, she who loves our sink and the stove, has started also perching on our dish drying rack. I can't imagine why -- the wire can't be a comfortable perch. By her left foot, you'll see where she has chipped away to the underlying metal. We're going to have to buy a new rack soon -- yet another peril of living with parrots.I've experienced fantastic customer service from two companies in the past couple of days, so I wanted to mention them here.

First, I purchased some electrolyte capsules from Hammer for use in my upcoming marathon. I received them very quickly (I placed my order on Monday and had them by Wednesday) and they threw in a bunch of free samples -- bars, gels, recovery drink, books, etc. I like their gels and my marathon partner likes their electrolyte capsules (which is why I bought some), so hopefully I like the rest of their products just as much. Their strategy worked because I was very impressed!

My other happy purchase was some shorts from Race Ready. I have a few of their long-sleeved shirts (since that's what they give away at the marathon) and had heard good reviews of their shorts. Just like with Hammer, I purchased online Monday and received by Wednesday. I ran in them this morning and loved them! There are so many pockets, which are necessary for distance runs. Also, the owners wrote a nice note on my invoice. I have not found running clothes I like better than Race Ready, so I will slowly be transitioning all of my running clothes to this brand.