Dancing Beeps

Thomas was singing to Beeps over the weekend. He showed his appreciation by dancing. Towards the end, you see Rocky climbing up on the couch; that's when Beeps flew away!

The lizards

Andreas has been doing so well lately. I expected him to brumate through the winter, but he's been out of his hide every day, running around, eating, etc. I know he's a solitary animal, but at times he almost seems to want attention from us.

Last week, I looked over, and he was staring at us:
Elsa's not been as active. She's barely eating, will go over a week without coming out, etc. I'm thinking about upping her temperatures a bit to see if that helps.

On Saturday, she was like this for over an hour:Later, she exited about another inch and stayed there for about another hour. The next time I looked, she was sunning herself under her basking light.

Last week, Andreas was glass dancing against the corner of his tank. We almost never let the lizards out to run around (they prefer higher temperatures than we keep our house), but he had so much energy and Thomas wanted to let him burn it off. He put Andreas on the floor, who immediately ran into the corner of our living room and did the same glass dancing movements! (Though I supposed it was wall dancing). We laughed and put him back in his tank.

Rocky breakfast

Here is photographic proof that Rocky's wings do collapse and nestle nicely; it's just that since he likes to show me how big and scary he is, and I take the vast majority of the pictures, it appears as though his wings are permanently stuck to "open."He's sharing some of Thomas's breakfast -- peanut butter toast. He ate the peanut butter off, dropped the bread on the ground, and then climbed down to find Thomas and beg for more.

Isn't his dark green coloring just amazing? He's like a little jewel. When the light reflects off of him, he is absolutely stunning.

I also think he must read the blog, since he's been remarkably well-behaved since I posted my rant about him last month.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend! We're going to watch The Man Who Came to Dinner tonight; I haven't watched this movie in years and Thomas has never seen it -- I can't wait! I also have to get some speed work in on the treadmill -- it always makes me feel so good after, but I'm still dreading it. Additionally, I have two scarves on the needles that I must finish before the end of the year so that I start 2010 with a fresh knitting slate. What an exciting life I lead! Details to follow in next week's posts.

Cheese fiends

I didn't get my camera out quickly enough, but both of the greys were exploring the grater. They are cheese fiends and definitely know what the grater means!Actually, Max is the cheese fiend; Stella was just over there to irritate Max, as she won't even eat any cheese when offered.

Pants parrot

Rocky, as a macaw, is quite destructive. As long as we provide him with acceptable wood to chip up, he usually leaves unacceptable wood alone, though he has been known to take chips out of our aquarium stand!

We leave baskets of 2X4 slices around the living room, so when he feels the need to chip, he runs over and grabs a slice. He loves winter, when Thomas wears pants instead of shorts, as one of his favorite places to chip wood is in Thomas's pant leg. He often wears scrub bottoms, which provide enough room for Thomas's leg and a severe macaw.

My view, from the couch:A view from behind:Someday, I will get this entire process on video, including him grabbing a piece of wood and going into Thomas's pants (which he does with no help from Thomas). He started doing this on his own -- it was not something we ever encouraged.

After he chips the wood, he has to dig them out of Thomas's pants. You can see lots of little chips on the floor:


He then needs to get another piece of wood, or get a snack, or just wants to go somewhere else, so he leaves the pant leg:


At the end of this video, he is making a threatening pose at me, so I quickly turned the camera off and hopped up to the safety of the couch!

Music cravings

I almost never get cravings for any kind of food, but I do get cravings for music. I'm stuck in the past, and have a lot of CDs; I have not yet switched to downloads. Even though I know it's better for the environment, and my house's clutter, I really like having a physical CD.

I have uploaded most of my CDs to my itunes at work, so whether I'm at home or work, I can generally satisfy my music craving almost immediately. Yea! This sometimes drives Thomas crazy as I will listen to the same song 10 times in a row as we're cooking dinner. He'll beg me to play something else and I'll agree after playing this song "one more time," which I then do several times. He's done the same thing to me, so I don't feel bad!

This morning, as I was driving to work, I needed to hear a specific song. I only had 5 more minutes until I got to work, but I was going crazy! Finally I rushed into my office and satisfied that craving.

Pocket parrot

I took this picture earlier this year, though I'm not sure if I posted it or not. In any case, it made me laugh when I found it again today, so I'm posting it.The Rockster is very weird; Thomas wouldn't even attempt this with any of our other parrots as they would not like it. However, Rocky will frequently climb in there by himself. Like a kangaroo.

My evil car

I frequently joke that my car is evil, and here is the proof!Wendy inspired me to take pictures of my car's important milestones. However, she safely parks her car before taking the picture -- I just slowed down to about 30.

This milestone was actually causing me some concern as I was driving on the Interstate and knew I couldn't take a picture while going 65 (or 74...) I thought I might have to get off an exit or two early, but wound up making it to my normal exit and taking the photo on the off ramp.

No new caique for us

For the reasons listed here, in update 2, we decided not to apply to adopt the other caique. It was a really tough decision and I'm still not sure we made the right one.

There are several birds that Thomas and I regret not adopting, and this caique may very well join the list.

For your viewing pleasure, here are a couple of pictures of the bird that I most regret not adopting:He was one of the most amazing parrots I've had the pleasure of knowing. He was older than Thomas and me, and such a gentle soul. He stayed up at the rescue for almost a year until we found the perfect home for him. I still communicate with his new owner, and he is a very loved member of the family.

I know we made the right decision not bringing him home, but I still think of him frequently and miss him.

Onions, part 2

Stella wasn't even in the room to observe Max playing with the onions yesterday, but she was drawn to them as well!My best guess is that I moved the onion bowl to the other side of the counter, so it's something new they have to explore.