A little Calypso

Earlier this week, I realized that one of my plants had grown toward the sun in such a way that the stem has become nearly horizontal.

Since Calypso was the closest parrot to me, and he is also the most compliant, I put him on the plant and took a picture.  He seemed to like it for a few minutes, but then tired of it and climbed down to step on my hand.

Here he is, eating a strawberry.  Normally, I'd cut it up, but was feeling lazy, so just gave him the entire berry.  Neither Max nor Beeps felt like having any.  As a special bonus, he smelled like strawberries for the rest of the night, so when I kissed the top of his head, I had an olfactory treat!

Out and about

In my new single life, I have been making it a point to try to do lots of things that I always wanted to do, or do more often, but didn't while married.  I am trying to live my life the way I want to, and not the way that either society or someone else says that I should.

For example, I always wished that I could live my life without driving.  Whenever I went to Europe, I loved just walking and using public transportation.  In my new life, I take the bus or walk to work and just drive on weekends, when necessary.

Last weekend, my bus stop looked like a crime scene:

But it was just that a super fun professional bike race was in town (one block from my apartment!!!):

So they needed to make sure that if anyone crashed into the bus stop, they wouldn't be injured.  I saw one minor collision, where someone's pedal flew off, but both were able to stay upright.

I was spectating, and amazed at how many people walking by that I knew.  Great fun!

Then, on Tuesday, I went to a music festival with friends:

The horn player is wearing a Keith Van Horn jersey -- he was one of my favorite college players in the mid-90s.  I have several of his rookie cards and used to have a framed poster (gave it to Goodwill when I moved to my apartment.)  This band is playing at a festival in town next week, so I'll probably see them again soon.

Then, we saw fireworks.  Since either my camera isn't great, or I had it on the wrong setting, the fireworks looked like they were dancing:

This weekend, I have lots planned again. I am sad that I went AWOL from blogging so have not much to remember these past 7 months by (though these past 7 months were so painful and terrible, perhaps it's best if I don't remember them) so I really, truly, am going to try to blog more!

Flock dynamics and life

If you can believe it, it's been nearly 4 months (!) since I've been in my new apartment. I have a hard time believing it's been so long.  My lease is over 1/3 over, which is exciting as I hope to buy a house next spring.  I am tired of worrying about the parrots making too much noise for the neighbors, and I'd like to be able to take Basil back when needed.  (But my house in the suburbs, which is on the market, needs to sell first.)

The parrots and I are acclimating well.  We love our new neighborhood.  Beeps loves to fly to the windowsills and watch all of the activity below.  Then he yells "pretty baby!" at the passers-by, but I don't think anyone but me can understand him.

I had hoped that my reduced flock would get along better, but Max and Calypso still attempt to drive Beeps from the area.  I have to be very careful to make sure he doesn't get injured.  Most nights, Max and Calypso play on the stand, like here:

while Beeps hangs out on my leg, under my protection.  I still don't understand how Max can be fine with Calypso but harbor such an extreme hatred for Beeps -- they are both male teenage caiques!  Get along!

All three of the parrots have had to acclimate to sleep cages.  They had been getting up with the sun -- near 5 am -- and beeping, whistling, and yelling, "Good morning!  Wanna get up!" which I'm sure my neighbors didn't appreciate!  And since I can't change my window trimmings due to my lease, I had to take other steps.

Previous to sleep cages, I had been getting up at 5 every morning and putting them into their (covered) carriers, which was obviously not sustainable.  Now I can finally get a full night's sleep!

I'll try to get a picture up, but they now love their sleep cages, which is nice, as they'll be able to take them with them if they have to board at my parents' house when I go on vacation.  If that ever happens :)

Once again, I am amazed at the resiliency of parrots.  Basil and Stella continue to do well in their homes.  Rocky is even enjoying it at the rescue (he has still not been adopted.)  And Max, Calypso, and Beeps have acclimated far better than I ever imagined.

In fact, before, when I'd ask Max for a kiss, she'd usually make one kiss sound.  Every since I've been single, she responds with TWO kiss sounds.  Somehow, she knows!

If you're wondering why blog posting has been light...

...it takes a long time to craft a post when you haven't any fingers!!!

Another personal update

Time is yet again flying by, and more than a month has passed since my last blog entry.  I just can't believe it!  It's now been over 6 months since I found out about Thomas's infidelity and my entire life changed.

Our divorce was final last month.  The day itself was terrible.  I think that part of me had hoped, until it was final, that he would finally realize what he'd done and do anything to make it right and for us to get back together.  Being in court made me realize that would be impossible.

Since then (it's been about 3 weeks now), I've felt like a huge weight has been lifted off of me.  I am still sad about the way things turned out -- I feel like I wasted over a decade of my life -- but starting to get more excited about my new life.  I haven't even wanted to cry since then, whereas the month or so before the divorce, it felt like that's all I was doing.

Max, Calypso, Beeps, Andreas, and I are mostly settled into our new apartment.  We've been here almost three months now!  Our house is on the market, and there's been some interest, though no offers yet.  Thomas leaves next month for his new job which is in a city about three hours away from us.

I found out I was losing my job right before Thomas confessed his affair, which added to my stress.  However, I have found a very interesting new job -- have been there about 7 weeks now -- which is perfect in every respect except for the longish hours and inability to do personal things (like e-mail and blog) on my work computer.

All in all, it's been a very interesting, and mostly good, few months.  I am trying to look at being single again as a great opportunity to take a look at my life, decide what changes need to be made, and become a happier person.  I've found great solace in my family and friends, who have really stepped up and have been unbelievable support during this terrible time.

I still get regular updates on Basil, Stella, and Rocky.  The first two are doing really well in their homes, and Rocky appears to be happy at the rescue.  He's still looking for a home, and he's so difficult that he might stay at the rescue for quite some time until the right home can be found.  I had hopes that Thomas would take him, but even though he could more than afford to buy a house in his new city where this would be possible, he rented an apartment with a no pets clause.

I've still been running, and last month took first in my age group in an ultramarathon (3rd female overall -- a couple of 20-somethings beat me!) I have a few races scheduled in the upcoming months, and have been training.

I've had trouble finding enough time to paint, but I will get back to it soon, now that things are settling down a bit more at work.  I have no air conditioning, so it's been way too hot to knit, though I have projects lined up for when it cools down again.

I haven't been very good at taking pictures -- I just went through what was on my camera and they were all minute-long videos of my parrots that probably no one else would find interesting, so I'm not going to post them.  I will try to get some new parrot material soon!

Hope everyone has had a great 2012 so far!

Max, my African Grey and Pink

I was painting my nails last week, and I had the bottle on the table.  Max flew over and investigated, as usual.  My head was turned for a second, and in that time, she nudged against the bottle, painting a pink streak on her beak:

It wore off in about a week.  She's back to normal now.

Plant fun

A month ago, my good friend came over to visit. Max and Calypso are both a bit skittish around other people, but Beeps loves everyone, especially if he senses they are bird people.   (The exception to this is my uncle.  Max loved my uncle on sight and actually solicited head pets from him!  He had no idea how special this was, even though we tried to explain it to him, and my mom had her feelings hurt as she has tried to befriend Max for over a decade.) My friend is a bird person (she has two parrots who are probably going to stay with us while the humans go on vacation, so you will get to meet them!)

So he hung out on her leg:

Then, something startled him, and he flew to the plant, which he loved.  He spent a long time in the plant, chewing off the (usually) dead leaves and playing around:

A short video:

This plant has become one of his favorite places to play; it's like an extra stand in the dining room!  He tends to head over there as soon as he flies in.

In which Max explores a bit

Max, who is really quite a brave and adventurous parrot, has been exploring our new apartment.  Since I am posting these pictures more than a month after taking them, she has now established her routines and flight patterns, and I no longer find her in such weird places, like this:

I found her in one of my pantries (I have two!), perching on my lentils and looking out the window.

Later, I gave her a tortellini to eat.  She is as food-motivated as ever!

I have a ledge that goes around my entire dining room.  This is where I place my paintings, many of Mary's paintings, and knick-knacks, such as this wire bird.  The first time, Max accidentally landed up here, but now this is one of her very favorite hang outs:

Speaking of Mary's paintings, when people come over, since they know I paint now, they frequently ask if her paintings are my work.  Are they kidding?  Someday soon I will post some of my work, and you will not even believe the difference.  I think I just have great friends that try to make me feel good!

Bath time, and after

At my new apartment, I have a ledge in my shower, which allows my parrots to perch there, like this:

One time last month, I was taking a bath, and Calypso was on the ledge, as Max is, above.  He was beeping and being quite loud, which is less acceptable now that we live in an apartment and need to not get evicted.

To quiet him down, I placed him on the edge of the tub, so he'd be closer to me.  This worked, but once I'd exited the tub, he started goofing around and fell into the tub, still full of water as I'd only started draining it.  I grabbed him out, but he was soaked.

This required me to wrap him up in a towel and dry him off, which he didn't mind at all (good thing this wasn't Max, as she would not have tolerated such behavior on my part!)

I made a little video of him, as he is just so adorable.  I love it when he makes his big kiss noises, and I *think* he might be saying "kiss" and/or "Calypso," though he garbles a lot, so it just sounds like nonsense.

He is the happiest of all of us about Thomas no longer being in our lives.  Maybe someday I will be able to get to that level of happiness about being alone!

Bicycle ride

Beeps was flying around my apartment last month, exploring, when he found himself in my back bedroom, where I am currently storing my workout equipment, including my bicycle.

This is where I found him, beeping and saying, "pretty baby!"