In which Max disapproves of my decorating...

Amazon sometimes feels like it gets me, like when it suggests I buy some butterflies. However, Max does not always agree, and she shows her disagreement by eating my art supplies:

Luckily for me, I was able to use it anyway!

Warmth

When Max gets chilly, she flies to a radiator and warms up a bit! I love it...

Friends?

Don't believe everything you see!  Max and Calypso were peacefully on their cages.  I was studying on the couch.  Calypso flew over to her cage, when I snapped this picture.  But he just wanted to be a bully!  After ringing her bell of disapproval, Max climbed down to walk over by me, and Calypso reigned happily until I put him back where he belonged.

World Series

One of my best friends works as an executive for a local concert venue. As such, I get to see a lot of live music. Tonight, one of my favorite musicians was playing. He was having an off night, so we only stayed for about half of the concert. I got home in time to watch the 9th inning of the World Series. Unfortunately, my only TV is in the same room where the parrots are. And here I confess another deficiency in my parrot ownership (though Max is so happy about this!) -- I woke them up so I could watch what's going to happen. I tried being as quiet as possible, but Max left her sleeping perch to beg to come out:

I have owned Max for nearly 15 years, and I have never seen her sleep.  I'd think she didn't need sleep, except for her extreme silence during the night.  She was ready to party, so I let her out for a few minutes, until the game ended.  Indians win!

Toothpaste!

And this is why I can't have nice things:

Max gets into everything! She loves the taste of toothpaste. I can't imagine that it's healthy for her, so I try to keep it out of her sight. But sometimes I forget, which means she gets to do this, and I get to spend the next few weeks getting sticky as a bit squeezes out the end of the tube through her minuscule pin prick holes.

What's next?

I brought a parrot stand into my upstairs bedroom with my TV, so that on the occasions that I watch TV, Max and Calypso can be with me.

As always, Max is not content to explore.  She must fly around and cause trouble.

She tried to land on the door frame, but was shocked to see that it was only 1/4 inch or so, and therefore needed to be rescued.  Unfortunately, it took her several times to realize this!

Until August

Almost caught up! My city is just so much fun, especially in the summer. Our local parks department puts on shows so you can go and listen to music in several city parks. I went quite frequently with friends this summer.

Here is photographic evidence of my car hitting 100,000 miles.  I actually hate my car.  It was a terrible choice.  It only has two door so is inconvenient, is super low to the ground, the check engine light is always on; I could go on and on.  It does have a great stereo!  In any case, I've thought about replacing my car (it's a 2002; purchased in 2001) but I hardly ever drive, so it makes financial sense to drive it as long as possible.  I hit 100,000 miles while going down the freeway.  I'm hoping to keep it for another few years while I make improvements to my house and save money.

I was making a dish of Thai peanut sauce with roasted broccoli.  Max kept saying, "want some!" I thought she wanted broccoli, but she had her eye on the peanut butter.  Once I figured that out and complied, all was right in our house again:

 I kept giving her broccoli, and she kept throwing it on the counter!

My best friend does Scottish Highland dancing, so I went to a festival to watch her.  Because I was with the talent, I got to sit backstage.  It was so much fun!

And a baseball game.  I am sponsored by a local running store; mostly because I am really good friends with the lady who is in charge of the sponsorship program.  Every year, they do an employee outing to our local MLB team.  And, even though I do not work there, I have been adopted as one of their own.

One of my friends is an amazing cook.  He had me over to their house a few weeks ago, and he served individual pizzas for everyone.  He used naan as the crust, and then you top as desired.  What a fantastic idea!  I have stated making these for myself:

And that pretty much brings me up to speed on what happened this summer.  I am still in denial that fall is coming, but I need to face reality.

I hope that everyone reading had a great summer and continues to do well!

Max eats broccoli

Since I'm working and going out more than I did before, I do the best I can to continue to give my parrots lots of attention.

Which means they "help" me cook. Max is testing the freshness of my broccoli. Which looks a bit toxic and glowing in this picture, but which was actually organic and delicious!

And June comes to a close...

Less than three months behind now!

June ended with a whirlwind of concerts -- Lady Gaga, Brad Paisley, Luke Bryan, and Outkast: four days straight!  I actually don't listen to contemporary country music (though I can talk about late-90s country for days...) but my motto is that you don't turn down free tickets!

My recommendations, for what it's worth:

Brad Paisley -- a big MEH.  If you are offered free tickets and don't have anything better to do OR if you are a big Brad Paisley fan, then you should go.  But I wouldn't pay money to see him or go much out of my way.

Luke Bryan, on the other hand, put on a great show, even for someone like me who knew none of his music.  Still not sure I would pay, since I don't know the songs, but I'd rearrange my schedule to go if offered free tickets.

Outkast (disclaimer: I have been a HUGE fan for years) was AMAZING.  The crowd was so into it, and since they don't have a new album out, they just played the hits.  If they are coming to your area and you love them, please go!

It was definitely the most diverse audience I've ever been in (which I love) and it's put me into nostalgia (I can't tell you how many times I've listened to "B.O.B." and "Ms. Jackson" over this summer!)

It's my birthday in July, and I received this fabulous package in the mail!  I had to post on facebook to see who sent it to me; my wonderful cousin.  I've been so busy and haven't made it yet, but what a fun surprise to find at my door!

My best friend and her husband (also a friend) went out with me for my birthday.  We went to a Vietnamese place and I had pho.  Perhaps it's a lot better if you eat meat, but I really didn't see what the fuss was about.  Glad we went and the company and conversation (as always) were great.

Since Max is obsessed with flying to my stained glass window and chewing the wood, we have been spending a lot of time in the kitchen lately.  That's where I am right now, in fact!  Here is a picture of the two of them.

Max, as always, is begging for head pets.  Calypso, who had been wandering around my counter, wound up settling on my stick (which I keep handy in case I need to remove Max from the stained glass: so high up!) and doing the parrot-equivalent of the barrel-roll.

Fun times!

Lazy Days

I purchased a hammock to go on my porch this summer, and have spent many lazy hours reading outside. I love it! Sometimes, I take the parrots out with me so they can enjoy the breezes:

Parrot yoga

When it's nice outside, after I get back from my morning run, I put Max in her sleep cage and bring her on my porch with me while I do yoga.

Sometimes she yells "Hello!" at the passers-by with their dogs, but mostly she just says "Oof!" as I transition from downward dog to plank.

Outsmarted!

In my new house, Max's favorite spot is on top of my stained glass window that's in my stairwell.  You can see it in the background of this picture.

However, she is not allowed there, as she chips off pieces of old wood and I want my house to look nice!

I attempted to hang a curtain in my stairwell to prevent her from going up there.  But the barrier was ineffective as she just decided to perch on it instead!  And usually wind up on the stained glass after a few minutes of strutting around, proud of herself.

I have also tried using a curtain to enclose her in the living room, where their cages are.  She has a two-pronged approach to deal with this inconvenience:

First, she flies directly into the curtain several times, to see if she can dislodge the tension rod and cause the curtain to fall (this must hurt...)

When this fails (about half the time), she flies to the ground, crawls under the 1/2 inch space at the bottom of the fabric, and then flies to the stained glass window.

I still have not figured out an effective solution to this other than intense supervision and going upstairs with her.  Or corralling her in the kitchen with me.  I need to become smarter than my parrot!

(My actual plan is to get something that can fit there so she no longer can.  I just have to figure out what and actually do it!)

Foraging with Max

Sometimes Max gets a little irritating. I know -- can you believe it? So, I look for things that will keep her busy for at least a few minutes.  One of her favorites, of course, is foraging.  It involves food, after all!  I recently realized that I get more bang for my buck when I throw in a bunch of tiny treats rather than use one large cashew.  Here is a video of Max trying to get the little treats out of the tower:

Ice cream, please. Want Some!!!

I was eating ice cream the other day -- not sure why since it's basically still winter here despite the calendar saying it's April -- and Max wanted some, so she got it:

January?

To start January, one of my best friends and I went out to the trails for a run.  We've done many of these since then, but this was the first one.

Getting ready to get out in the cold:

So snowy!  So beautiful!

Back at home, Max continued to be adorable and to beg for me to pick her up:

I try to tell her that she is an independent grey and not a needy cockatoo, but she doesn't listen.  As soon as I put the camera in front of her, she pretty much lifts up her foot -- her way of asking to be picked up.

Calypso, as adorable as ever.  This year, he turns 19, and he celebrates his 10th anniversary with me.  Our bond just keeps getting stronger and stronger.

And Beeps continues to do well.  Here, he's showing off for the camera: destroying his phone book (who knew they even made those anymore?)

So excited that he rolls over on his back!

Max, again:

Eating peanut butter on a spoon.  She loves showing off how smart she is; I had several friends over when she did this.

Earlier in the year, I had my internet tech stop by to figure out why my service had ceased to work properly.  She yelled "Hello!" as soon as he walked in, and later insisted on performing her tricks for him.  What a show-off!  As it turned out, he had a Grey at home, so delighted in her tricks.

Calypso gets revenge

Last month, I was reading on the couch, and the parrots were hanging out on their cages.  Max apparently was bored with behaving on her cage, so she decided to fly to Calypso's cage.  And throw things at him.  At first, he was hanging out on the floor, playing with toys he'd dropped.  Once Max started aiming toys at him, Calypso climbed up to the floor of his cage, as shown here:

But that wasn't enough for Max.  She continued to try to throw things at him.  Finally, he had enough.  He marched up his cage and chased her back to her own cage:

Made me laugh!  (Of course, I would have intervened if it had become necessary, but I knew they'd be able to figure this out among themselves.)

Steps

This evening, I'd let the parrots out of their cages while I was reading a book in the living room. As usual, the caiques behaved by playing on their cages and whistling back and forth with me. Also as usual, Max was another story.

She is fascinated with my stairs. Usually, she'll walk over to them and then dance and make sounds (whistling, singing, talking, kisses) to bring my attention to her. She has, so far, been unable to climb them at all. In our old house, she could climb them because there was carpet that she could attach her beak to, but here she could get no purchase. However, this evening, I kept finding her on the first step. I couldn't figure out how, until I realized that I'd taken my running shoes off while sitting on the step, and left them right there.

She'd used the shoe on the floor as a step to get to her destination -- smart girl!

Since I run a lot and therefore wear through shoes regularly, I had a bunch waiting to be taken to the running store to be turned into a track (through Nike's Reuse A Shoe program.)

I tried to get it on video, but it was too dark, and she kept stopping once she saw the camera to dance.  However, she was a very happy lady tonight.  Not sure how long I'll keep them there for her; it probably depends on her behavior and whether she uses the shoes to chew on my wood.  If so, they'll be gone, and she'll be under stricter supervision.

Greetings!

My internet went out earlier this week, due to the wind knocking branches off of my pear tree that took down my phone line.  It took a couple of days for the service to be restored.

When the technician got here, as soon as he stepped inside my house, Max yelled, "Hello!!!"  The technician replied, "Hello!" -- it turns out he has a grey and a cockatiel.

Max has just started enthusiastically greeting everyone who enters our home. She's also decided that she wants to do her tricks for everyone; luckily this guy was interested (and it only takes a minute to run through them) -- she was so happy for an audience!

Book Club

I read. A lot.  I frequently read in the living room, so the parrots get ambient attention while I'm there.

The caiques are content to stay on their cages and occasionally whistle to me (of course, I always respond.)  Max, on the other hand, is more hands-on.  She usually climbs up onto the couch:

And then will spend hours on my leg:

I was wearing gray tonight; perhaps she felt more bonded to me than ever? (Just kidding!)

Head pets, now!

I love how Max will stop at nothing, including guilt and cuteness, to get what she wants.  In this case, head pets.

I was chopping up vegetables, trying to make dinner, when she climbed up on a container and started scratching her own head, imploring me to take over.

Of course I did; how could I resist her?