Melange

Yet more random things that have been my life during the three months (!) I have not posted on the blog:

I have a GREAT coworker.  Actually, I have many great coworkers.  Peter is just one of them.  He lives in the same part of town as I do, and he's got eagle eyes.  Many times, I'll be out biking or running, and I hear my name called -- it's either Peter or his family yelling hello to me.  I love it!

His daughter is a great young lady.  They came out to watch me run in the marathon a few years ago.  When school in canceled, sometimes she comes in to work and helps us out with our filing, or other tasks that a 9 year old can do.  She came in a few weeks ago, and gave me this beautiful purple bracelet:

One of my closest new friends is an amazing lady who is very creative and busy.  She has created an organization that gets together food bloggers (they let me come even though I don't have a food blog, and very rarely parrot blog) on a theme.  Last month, for February, our theme was aphrodisiac foods. She made this delicious heart-shaped cake:

 I made a pasta salad that incorporated cherries, almonds, and spinach:

At home alone on a Sunday one week, a good friend called and asked if I wanted to go to the art museum with her.  Of course!  This was my favorite part of the special exhibit.  Fish!

My coworker and good friend won an award for being a Corporate Trailblazer in our city.  This was the food I ate; it was so delicious and some of the best stuff I have ever tasted.  I think the main dish was cheese-filled crepes.  I wonder if I can make something so amazing?

I may have mentioned that my dad and I have season basketball tickets to our local NCAA basketball team.  They didn't do very well this season, but we went to every home game and had a great time together.  My mom was also able to make many of the games.

Here is a picture from their first league tournament game.  We had very low expectations, but they pulled out a win!

And then, shocking us all, they kept on winning, until they won the tournament and, with that, a berth to the NCAA tournament!!!  It's unlikely they'll advance, but what a wonderful end to the season.  (I hope they don't jack up the prices too high for season tickets next year since my parents and I will be getting them again!)

Swing!

I cannot even express how much I love it when one of my parrots is hanging out on their swing.  Usually, it's one of the caiques.  In this case, it was Calypso.  Even though his door was open and he could have been hanging out on the outside of his cage, he chose to perch on a swing.  He has several in his cage, and I love it every single time.

When I see this, I fawn all over him, pick him up, and we make kiss sounds at each other.  So I'm probably reinforcing it, but I also like to think that it brings him happiness thinking about being free on swinging branches.

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Life continues to be extremely busy.  I just broke things off with the last guy I was seeing.  He was just too weird, and I had enough of that in my marriage!  However, I think that he has (inadvertently) convinced me to write a book.  It may be a book that only my friends read, but already, "That's gotta go in your book!" is being exclaimed frequently.  So many funny stories!  Right now, I'm thinking it will be fiction, but pretty much based on my past few years.  A lady who thinks she's in a fabulous marriage to her best friend, but actually he's a personality-disordered loser who cheats on her with a clone of his mom.  Then her subsequent reaction and journey into a great new life where she realizes that she was culpable in pulling the wool over her own eyes.  We'll see what happens.

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On my run this morning, my running partner and I saw a downy woodpecker.  Or maybe a hairy woodpecker.  I can never tell them apart unless I'm looking at pictures!  But it was a lot of fun and I love that my running partner loves to look at birds as much as I do!

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My dad and I have season tickets to our local NCAA basketball team.  This evening, I went to a game with him, my best friend, and my best friend's husband.  They love my parents, so we had a great time.  And, while the team was not very good last year, they are doing really well this year!  The last two games have been so well-played.  Tonight, we had great seats.  We could hear the players trash-talking and really see the physicality of the game.  I love it!  Unfortunately, the next home game isn't until next year -- nearly a month!