Birdy play date

What a great time I had last night. I visited Paul (my friend Marguerite's 12 yr. old autistic brother) and brought Punkin' and Pickles along. Paul has his own cockatiel named Gloria and so we had a birdy play date. We've done this about five times now, and it's so much fun! Paul had never met Punkin' and loved how she flew around the room. He laughed and laughed when she'd come flying at me, landing in my hair! His little Gloria is so beautiful, sweet and sooo tame! She's not a normal grey cockatiel like his last one...she's what's called a cinnamon pearl mutation. This is not his bird, but she looks a lot like this...



Such a gorgeous girl. Always preening herself. She mostly just sat there on Paul's or my shoulder and watched my birds fly around like, "What in the fuck are these things? They're so LOUD and obnoxious!" Cockatiels are laid back birds. Of course they all have different personalities and some are more rambuncious than others, but cockatiels in general are gentle and calm. Why didn't I get one of those instead of my very energetic lovebirds and parrotlet? Because I think they're boring and common. Lovebirds are very common too, lots of people have them. This is due to the fact that they are prolific as hell, beautiful (the normals are lovely and then you have the many gorgeous mutations) and fairly cheap. But many people who have lovebirds don't have the patience to tame them and usually keep them in an aviary or in pairs in a large cage. An older lovebird is a bit of a challenge to tame. I guess my point is, I like the challenge...

Yea.

And it's cool to have at least one tame lovebird. It makes having the untame one much easier. Untame Punkin' has become very attached to tame Pickles, as lovebirds do, and follows him around everywhere. Pickles loves to fly to me, as I've been training him to do it and rewarding him much of the time with a generous serving of millet seed...or what I like to call, birdie pot. So last night, Pickles flies to my shoulder or I pick him up and next thing I know Punkin' is landing on my head, shoulder or chest. Works out well!

Anyway, last night was a lot of fun. Paul's parents ordered Chinese and it was fabulous. They just remodeled a few rooms in the house as well. I've been to that house so many times over the years and it's so cool to watch it change for the better. They have great taste. The t.v. room, where we ate dinner, used to be this tiny tiny room. Now it's expanded and they have a gorgeous new HD t.v. in there. So we watched the tail end of a cheesy movie (Armogeddon...OH the cheese) while we ate dinner. I was also able to tell Paul that I don't like the phone calls every single night. He had started that again and I didn't have the heart to tell him over the phone. I wanted to tell him in person. I told him that I don't like talking on the phone very much in general, that I'm happy to be his friend and really enjoy talking to him, but could we talk maybe once or twice a week instead... Maybe give ME a chance to call him. He was very sweet about it and as far as I could tell, his feelings weren't hurt at all. I always worry over confrontations! Even with a little boy!!

A funny thing happened on the way home. I was driving along and I looked to my left to change lanes and BEHOLD...



Hehehehe! Wasn't I just blathering on about these little guys yesterday?? Yup, little guy was crawling up my driver's side window. So I rolled it down just enough to stick my arm out to pluck 'im off the window. I put him on top of my steering wheel and watched as he slowly crawled toward the two o'clock position. Yes, I am easily amused. By the time we got home, he was already past that point and had left a beautiful slimy trail on my steering wheel cover. I put him in a bush and went in the house to get a wet cloth to wipe down my wheel. Eww... Snail trails are NOT cute.

Okay, that's about it for now. It's Thursday and I've got to make some more collection calls. PAY UP, BASTARDS!!!