Embracing cooler weather

As the weather has been cooling down, everyone's been feeling a bit more snuggly. I turned around yesterday to see Stella caught in a loving embrace:
Even after Thomas removed his right arm from her, she stayed and snuggled a bit.
Of course Rocky also got an embrace: Beeps also got one, but I didn't photograph it since he doesn't like the camera and I didn't want him to bite Thomas! Max, Calypso, and Daphne are not big fans, so he leaves them alone.

Last night, even though Thomas was in the kitchen with us, Rocky went over to the sliding glass door to look out a bit. He will occasionally hang out there, which is fine by me since then he can't try to attack my feet.

Also, for the first time ever, Beeps flew over and started looking outside. We asked him, "Are you pulling a Rocky?" but he just beeped in response.

I am just so excited that Mallow bought How To Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman. I've probably said this before, but I think I'm giving it to several people on my Christmas list this year. I made these caramel walnut bars late last week. They taste really great (as you can tell by the fact that several were missing by the time I got around to taking a picture!) My only complaint is that the topping can get runny -- we keep them in the fridge and you can see what happened to the platter. Also, Thomas snuck chocolate chips into the setting batter when I wasn't looking (I pick them out of the bars I eat). I'm trying to do more cooking, but I think I prefer baking. Since that doesn't put dinner on the table, I'm hoping to get more excited about cooking!

Back to parrots. Thomas and Rocky are very hands-on with each other. Instead of having him step up, he'll often just grab him, like here. And Rocky loves it! These guys just have such a fantastic relationship! I'm still working on Rocky. Since I was wearing long sleeves yesterday, I asked him to step up on my arm so I could bring him to Thomas in the basement (he was working out). Rocky complied and didn't even make a move as though he was going to bite me. I think he knew if he bit me he'd go back in his cage instead of going to see Thomas!

Beeps has been quite camera-aggressive for the past couple of months, which is why I haven't been posting as many pictures of him. He saw me with the camera, and started posturing while on the figure-8 rope swing hanging on their stand. I wasn't quick enough to get that shot, but did get him as he was coming down to display.

You can see his left foot is still holding on to the rope swing. He is just so acrobatic!I had a meeting after work on Monday, so Thomas was alone with the parrots for a few hours. He said they were perfectly behaved and didn't cause him any trouble. I'm not sure if I believe this since that's not the case when I'm there. He claims everyone stayed on their cage and no one tried to eat the wallpaper off of the wall. Interesting...