New addition

Mary Worth returned to her comic strip after a 15 day absence.

Our family has new addition, a cockatiel named Janie. He was advertised on Craig's List as a female but he has the coloring of a male. So far he gets along well with Salvador, not so well with Edgar. I will post pictures soon.

We are thinking about giving Janie a different name. It was not his original name. The person we got him from acquired him when her brother put a birdcage outside to dry and Janie flew into it. This is the fifth story I've heard about a cockatiel just picking a person to live with. Unfortunately for Janie the person is allergic.

Janie did come with a lot of accessories that I'm trying to integrate into the surroundings.

Loki's training is going well. Today he pretty much ignored the little yapping dogs from across the street even though they were in our yard and one of them nipped at Loki's tail. He looked at the little nipper and then turned away to sniff around for something more interesting. The neighbor's dogs are becoming way too territorial.

I live in an all-male household.

What I learned on my holiday break

Thanks to a nice university job, I was on break from December 22 - January 5.

Things I learned while on break:

1. We own 101 wash cloths. We have received wash cloths for Christmas every year we've been married. I found wash cloths still folded in half exactly as we received them. I did not count the kitchen wash cloths we received just those designed for bathing. I found this out while organizing the cabinets in one of the bathrooms. I kept pulling out wash cloths and became curious as to how many we own. The number may increase as other cabinets, drawers and parts of the house become organized. Depending on how neurotic Walter and I become, we could go 50 to 5 days (using 1 - 10 wash cloths per shower per person - I'll leave it up to you to count the body parts) without washing a load of wash cloths. We got rid of 2 wash cloths because they had stains on them. This improves the chances of using one of the other 99 at least once.
2. I have acquired a lot of t-shirts either through blood or sweat.
3. Without a schedule I wake up at 10:00 am or later and go to bed at 1:00 - 2:00 am. I did not take naps. Pills facilitated my transition to regular work type hours.
   
4. Our bed frame has six legs. Walter bought four risers for the bed. A few days after putting the bed on risers the bed sagged in the middle. This sag brought us closer together but also caused some soreness. The bed is off the risers pending the purchase of two more.
5. The extremes in the weather has not compromised my immune system, yet. Shorts and tank top one day, multiple layers the next.
   
6. I have gotten comfortable with wearing medium shirts, tank tops and single digit sized pants.
7. The birds like to sing when the morning sun goes through their window. This can be annoying depending on how well I slept the night before.
8. Salvador sings every afternoon from 12:45 - 1:10 regardless of the condition of the sky.
9. I'm getting the hang of this organization and getting rid of stuff thing.
10. I like nightly massages.
11. When the white chocolate covered Oreos hit store shelves buy three boxes. The white chocolate covered Oreos are never in the cookie aisle.
12. I have a great family.
    
13. Wash cloths make decent hand towels.

Happy cocktiel vs. Happy baby

As an owner of a cocktiel, I found the third panel of Baby Blues a bit offensive. Salvador can make some annoying noises when happy but he is not nearly as annoying as a loud baby. I'm one of those nasty people who cannot distinguish between loud annoying happy noises and loud annoying other emotion noises. My pain receptors cannot make the distinction. I would rather hear a cockatiel or any parrot in a restaurant over a baby regardless of its emotional state.

The two times that I've taken Salvador to a public venue (church for animal blessing) he has been fairly quiet. Just a bit of soft chirping.

Happy cockatiel does not equal happy baby! Happy cockatiel rules! Happy cocktiel rocks!

Pet Photo Friday

Loki hoping that Walter drops something edible. Loki did get to clean the plate after Walter ate.

It's hard to see in this photo but whenever Loki sleeps or lays his head on the ground the tip of his tongue always sticks out.

The eye with less than 20/20 vision is watching you!

Salvador and Edgar now act like a flock. Edgar follows Salvador in flight and attempts to either land on Salvador's back or as close to Salvador as he can get.

Edgar the daredevil. Yes, that's a ceiling fan blade that Edgar has landed on and we are trying to discourage that behavior. Edgar has developed four interesting blue/purple dots on his neck.

Salvador preening while perching on top of the refrigerator. Salvador is standing next to Poop Off.

Loki, relax! Good dog!

Religion is a smile on a dog.

Salvador Sketchcast

Crap

Crap. My web site host is down again. This is annoying. The second time in less than a week. One day's worth of updates were lost the first time; I restored them yesterday. Now, the site is down again. IPower has been quite reliable for the past 3 years so I don't understand the problems this year.

I took Salvador to church for the blessing of the animals. He did well. Chirped a bit, stayed quiet during meditation and refused to make any noise during the one song about birds singing. The other people attending the service enjoyed listening to him chirp. The whole adventure tired him out. I let him out of his travel cage and he flew straight to his regular cage for a nap.

I will foster a new dog this summer. She is a Beagle named Abbey. A very fat Beagle. She was an owner surrender. I'm sure she will be lots of fun and a nice companion for Loki.