Monthly personal update

As frequently as I say that I'm going to try to update this blog more often, you'd think that I would!  However, real life is getting in the way.  When I was married to the most anti-social person in the world, I had plenty of time to blog, but now that I'm doing things with friends and still trying to keep up with the parrots, as well as holding down a much more demanding job, this is something that has fallen by the wayside.  Which makes me sad, as I'd love to have a more complete picture of the past couple years of my life!

But here is a snapshot of the things I did during the month of July:

I went to a baseball game.  I am sponsored by a local running store, and am friends with many of the employees, so they invited me along on their employee outing, which was rather odd, since I was the only non-employee, but they were so welcoming and I have been invited back for next year!

This one was June, but a local street festival was held to celebrate the solstice.  I went with a good friend and her husband.  We met the father of the lead singer of a popular local band (on the verge of signing a national record contract) which meant we met the lead singer and had a memorable evening.

 Supermoon!!!

 Front-row tickets to see three bands from my youth!!!!!

 Boyz II Men (my favorite, and I will get a rhinestone-emblazoned Phillies hat someday):

 Not sure why they look other-worldly, but I love this picture of them singing!

98 Degrees (I am actually a bit too old for them, and I didn't know many of their songs, but they were energetic and fun):

New Kids on the Block -- yes, I should be embarrassed to admit it, but I was there!  And when they went into the crowd for one of their songs, they all brushed past me!  Again, I wasn't huge fans of them, but I knew most of the songs they sang, and they put on a great show.

My sister and I went to a minor-league game that was one of the most exciting games I have ever seen. S he won a pair of VIP tickets.

The celebration after they came from behind in the bottom of the 9th inning with 2 outs, when they hadn't had the lead for the entire game:

I went to dinner with my friend J.  We split a pizza, which meant room for dessert.  This was one of the best things I have ever eaten.  That's caramel sea salt ice cream on top of the brownies.  And candied nuts.  YUM!!!  I showed my friend at work this picture, she made me show a bunch of other people, and quite a few made it over to this restaurant for this piece of deliciousness:

Celebrating Bastille Days (you can see French flags spread out along the street of this very American city.) 

On a date, I went bowling for the first time in over a decade -- and scored over 100 points (that's me on the top row.)

Same guy, different date.  French toast.  With ice cream.  Amazing concept, and one I'm ashamed to have not thought of myself.  This really was made for two to share, so I only ate half of the French toast, but I did eat all of the ice cream (caramel sea salt again.  Delicious!!!)

My parents and I go to a craft brew fest on an annual basis.  This year, four of my friends (two couples) joined us, and we ran into my cousin there.  What a fun time!  After, we walked to a different street festival, then we walked home, and my parents spent the night.  That part will continue to be a tradition, though I'm hoping to pick up a couple of used bikes for people to use when they visit as biking home will be quicker than walking!

It's still very early days, but I am dating an amazing man.  I was abused (verbally and emotionally) for so long, I rather forgot what it was like to be with someone who treats me as nicely as I treat him.  I'm glad I took many months away from dating to work on myself and figure out what I really want, as I'm in a good place to welcome a good man into my life.

He's met the parrots and finds them amusing and interesting.  Being prey animals, they are a little wary, but he'll win them over.  His middle name is Andres, which is usually what I'd use as his pseudonym, but since it's so close to Andreas's name, I'll have to think of something different to avoid confusion.  Though hopefully no one would think that I am dating my lizard!

Anyway, things are good, life is fabulous, and I need to blog more frequently!

Sleep cages!

It doesn't look like I posted about this last summer when I bought them, but due to the fact that I am living in an apartment and wanted to not get kicked out due to the parrots awakening with the sun, I bought them sleep cages.  Their normal cages are too big for me to properly cover, so this was my solution.

I was a little worried about how they would take to them, but they all love them!  I was also a little worried about putting them together myself, but I am discovering new skills of assembly I never had to use before.

Since they each get a cashew before bed, after they go into their sleep cages, Max will actually climb down and go into hers by herself.  She also knows to open the door on the caiques' cages (I don't latch them when they are unoccupied) to see if either caique left some cashew uneaten.  Occasionally, she is rewarded for this thoroughness.

Here's Beeps:

Max:

And Calypso:

I cover them, so it's dark, which allows me to keep things quiet until I wake them up.

During the day, when they are out with me, they like to play on the cages.  Calypso spent quite a while trying to rip up the cage paper through the grate today.  The reason I went to grab my camera is that Beeps actually went into this cage with Calypso on top.  I had hoped to get a picture of that, but he'd flown back to his cage by the time I returned with the camera.

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In unrelated news, the offer I put in on the house was accepted!  The inspection is on Wednesday May 1, and if all goes well, I will be the owner of a fabulous Victorian -- my dream house -- by June 15.  I'm going to try to remember to take some pictures on Wednesday so I can post them here.

This is all so exciting.  I can't wait to have a guest bedroom.  And, my dad asked if I would be interested in brewing beer with him once I have a house.  That's a hobby that Thomas and I shared, and I'd given it up once I was alone.  Now that I'll have a bigger kitchen, I can't wait to brew with my dad!

Clean-up

One of Thomas's beers had a bit of an explosion in the primary fermenter.  It wasn't a huge deal, but just provided him with a bit of a mess to clean up before work, and now our house smells a bit hoppy.

Of course, the greys had to walk in to see what was going on.  They are very nosy.

Max must have gotten a little too close to the action, as evidenced here:

Of course, as soon as she landed, she was right in Thomas's business again.  He said he could have cleaned up more quickly without them, but I reminded him it wouldn't have been as fun.

Max and Stella

We got our first box from our spring CSA last week.  Of course the curious greys had to check out stuff they hadn't seen before:

We also did some bottling of beer.  We were hoping the greys would just stay on their stands, but of course that didn't happen.

Here, Max is attempting to tip over the sample from this batch as Stella tries to get to a dark place to nest:

Then, Max started doing strange things to the bottles that were waiting to be filled:

Later, we'd taken out supplies to start making dinner; Stella had to insert herself into this as well:

After dinner, Thomas made his dessert and left it unattended for a minute.  No surprise what happened next, though a bit surprising that they were getting along so well:

Brewmaster

Thomas had purchased 5 gallons of apple cider that he's in the process of turning into hard cider. Stella was obsessed with these bottles! She kept standing by them, talking to them, etc. I told Thomas he had an assistant, but he didn't think she'd be very helpful.  He was right.

Food investigations

Max continues in her role of having to investigate everything in the house:I doubt that Stella would have come over to do this had she not seen Max first. It's a good thing Max is wonderful since Stella is such a copy cat and I shudder to think what my life would have been like should she have chosen to emulate Rocky instead! Two Maxes -- even ten Maxes -- I can handle. One Rocky just about drives me over the edge!
I told her the tea was hot -- you can still see the steam coming off -- but she still had to check it out:
She grabbed a piece of corn and then flew to the table to eat it in peace:Thomas was brewing over the weekend when his thermometer broke. Being resourceful, he used the thermometer we use to regulate our lizards' tanks:
He's making a barely wine with cherries added to the mash. I'm not sure how I feel about that, and it will be several months until we can taste how it turned out.

Bottling travails

Over the weekend, we did have to do a bit of bottling. Thomas was working, so I went downstairs to wash the labels off of bottles. I didn't want to be alone, so I thought I'd take a parrot with me -- everyone else stayed in their cages upstairs.

First, I tried Calypso, but he was rather scared of the basement. He jumped to my shoulder and would not relinquish his hold on the back of my sweatshirt -- so he quickly went upstairs. Next, I tried Beeps:He wasn't really enjoying himself, so he went back as well. I certainly wasn't going to bring Rocky down, and I didn't trust either of the greys to stay out of trouble, so I was alone after all. Probably quicker that way!

Later, after Thomas returned, we got down to the bottling. One by one, the parrots who got into more trouble than we could handle while bottling got put in their cages. That may have been a bit dramatic, as it was only the greys! They kept fighting, including through their last warning, so they were separated in their cages and not released until we were no longer occupied.

I'd go into the living room periodically to make sure that everything was OK. Of course, Calypso was perfect. What made me laugh were Rocky and Beeps. They were pretty much imitating each other -- but on each other's cage!

Rocky, on Beeps's cage:
Beeps, on Rocky's cage:
When I took this picture, they were both hanging out on the door. Rocky had been in the same position as Beeps -- relaxed, on one leg -- but had to go into high alert as soon as I was around. At other times, they were both playing with toys inside the cage and eating each other's food inside the cage.

Goofballs! I think Rocky would prefer to be in Beeps's cage full time, but it's really too small for a severe macaw, plus...he knows how to escape from it! That may explain his eagerness for a cage switch.

Monday night

Thomas beat me home from work last night. When I got home, he was brewing, alone. Only Steve, in his cage, was in the kitchen with him. I asked him if the parrots were in their cages, but he said that they just hadn't wanted to join him. Within a minute, Rocky, Stella, Max, and Beeps flew or walked in.

Thomas was brewing something similar to Dogfish Head's Festina Peche, which we had while in Boston and loved. As he was making his peach puree, Max kept exclaiming "want some!" But she really didn't.I interpret this look as, "What is this? I don't like peaches! I thought this was squash!"

I sat down at the table since Thomas didn't need help at that moment, and Steve came down to eat, less than two feet away from me. He is getting more courageous! He seems to feel much more comfortable when Thomas isn't there. I think he lived with a single woman for the first years of his life.
On his favorite perch. You can see wood chipped off of his wood toy, a leather strap bitten off, and beads and arms bitten off of the purple toy.
I think I heard him say another word when we were in the living room and he was alone, but since I couldn't decipher it, it doesn't count.

The greys then all got almonds. Max actually cracked one open! Usually, she expects us to do the hard work for her.
I couldn't decide which of these Stella-almond pictures I liked better, so they are both here:
Steve also ate one, but dropped it as soon as I pointed the camera at him, so I gave up after two attempts and let him eat his almond undisturbed.

Rocky and Stella

Saturday morning, Rocky had taken a drenching shower with Thomas. But that wasn't enough for him! He took another bath, in his water dish. Rocky rarely does this. It was maybe the third time since we've had him (almost four years) that he bathed in his dish. He managed to keep his head dry, though. He is so funny looking when his body is olive and his head bright green:Later on, Thomas was sitting on the kitchen table. Rocky kept trying to get inside his shirt, so he could chip up wood pieces. I didn't think he could do it, but I should remember to never underestimate my severe macaw:*************************
Stella, like the rest of our parrots, is not allowed on shoulders. Though she has never shown any intention of harm towards us, the risk of a face bite is too great. However, she likes being on shoulders, especially Thomas's, so she seeks out opportunities when he is busy doing other things as he can't remove her.

For example, doing a neti pot (though she's perched more on his neck that on his shoulder):Or brewing, moving the beer from the secondary fermenter to the bucket used for bottling:

Cider helper

When I got home from work yesterday, Thomas was brewing. Actually, he was bottling (a cyser) and racking (a trippel) and making cider. I'm not exactly sure if you "brew" a cider. I got home just in time to cap the cysers. A task that was made more difficult by curious greys investigating my work and a rouge caique who was let out of his cage by a certain severe macaw.

One thing I've mentioned before is how we try to involve the parrots in our activities, in a parrot-safe way. We were opening bottles of apple juice for the cider, so gave one of the caps to Max. She loved it!In fact, after he'd finished his work, Thomas decided to take a quick shower -- guess who followed him into the bathroom, with her toy?
Sorry for a posting delay. I didn't take many pictures over the weekend as I was not really in the mood. Thomas and I helped with an intake of over 40 abused/neglected parrots at the rescue where we volunteer. I went home and cried over the poor condition these birds had been living. My focus was then on spending time with my parrots and making them feel loved, rather then documenting their antics. Thomas almost took home a neglected lovebird ("He can go in Daphne's cage! We have the room!") but sanity (aka Me) prevailed.

One exciting thing that did happen is our pleco came out for a visit! This picture isn't the best, but you can see her eyes flashing a bit.We have gone over 14 months without seeing her, until we found her hiding place. Now, we check on her about once a week to make sure she's still there; however, during these checks, we can normally just see her bristles -- never her whole body like this!