I just bought my poor little Alba her own apartment, essentially because Tweet, well, Tweet is sort of a big fat meanie who picks on her. But now the girls each have their own room so hopefully they can be friends now...



As a bonus, Alba seems to really dig the swing.

After her last disastrous egg-laying misadventure, it seemed that Tweet had been doing a pretty good job of fending off Derelei's advances and Astrid had been frankly beating him up whenever he tried anything with her... But it seems that Tweet gave into temptation at least once and is currently trying to lay another egg. I'm giving her and hour and then if she seems in distress, off to the birdie ER we will go...

Regardless of how this goes, knowing that egg laying is such a dangerous thing for her, I think I need to face the fact that I need to break up my flock. Tweet came to me because she was lonely as a single birdie, so I really can't see sending her off on her own, so I'd like to place her with at least one of the other girl birdies, maybe both. I know that Derelei is the "source" of the problem, but I've had him longest and am really quite attached, so it will need to be the girls that go.

I know a few people have in the not too distant past expressed an interest in obtaining budgies. If anyone would like a parakeet or three, let me know. Astrid (the yellow one) and Tweet (the green one) are probably best placed together, with or without Alba. Alba (the grey one) is a little on the quiet side and I think would do well with a person-friend instead of a budgie friend. If you are interested in being an adoptive birdie parent, I can provide an appropriately sized cage, toys, and a starter bag of food.

************************************

EDIT: 12:48AM - Tweet seemed to calm down and, while she did not pass an egg while in protective custody, nor does she seem to have one palpable in her abdomen, she had been straining hard enough to make herself bleed a little. She's been poked and prodded and oiled and dampened, so she's really pretty angry with me. I called the emergency vet and they were not sure about "hysterical pregnancies" in birds but said just to watch her because birdie hormone levels could potentially be making her think she had an egg to pass (or she laid it somewhere I have yet to discover). She's back in the cage and acting reasonably normal, so no ER at this time, but since Derelei is already making kissy faces at her again, I think my decision about finding new homes for the girls will have to stand. :(

************************************

EDIT: 3:36 AM - thus far, Tweet seems to be OK, other than being covered in oil and angry that she and Astrid have been banished to a little cage because Derelei would not leave them alone. So far, Derelei has been leaving Alba alone, but I don't know how long that will last... For now, at least, I'm exhausted and am going to go to bed and just trust that all goes well overnight...

************************************

EDIT: 1:30 PM Friday - Tweet seems OK - no further bleeding and she seems reasonable normal. I'm going to go to the TOC as planned and fencingkitty will be checking her periodically over the weekend. *crosses fingers*

Well, this weekend was a seriously mixed bag.

Coronation was a wonderful event. It was splendid to see ladyroisinknighted and I was most honored that she not only let me dress her, but that she asked me to speak for her. It's odd, I do a lot of public speaking in the SCA and for my job, but that was as nervous as I have been about it in years... It just felt so important to get it *just* right... The brains, they are a weird place. 

Also, I got to spend a lot of time chasing down people in order to deliver linen-y goodness and the pile of other little items that I needed to distribute. While this sucked a lot of my time at the event, it also meant that I intentionally touched bases with a number of damn fine people I often end of missing altogether at busy events. Even better, I touched base with two people that I needed to excahnge information with - one is a lovely Nordskogen fellow who is making me some shoes and the other was bebe_lily, who I am using as a "sample baby" for making ittsy bitsy garb. :) I also used the 300+ yards of linen I had to distribute as an excuse to bring my wonderful new cart. Oh, happiness! It made toting the linen in much easier (still two trips, but at least not twelve or more!) and I got to amuse Steel by giving the little monster a cart ride around the parking lot. Sadly, once again, I failed at getting decent photos of the event. As in none. :P I suspect some will go up on the Gallery in the next few days and teffansent me a few from her phone, but I had such good intentions... *sigh*

I got home to find that Tweet is about the same as when I left. I had felt guilty about leaving the little patient for the weekend, but there really was not anything I could do for her. It's the sort of thing that she'll either make it or she won't - there isn't really anything I can do, and I think maybe that's what bothers me the most. She's doing the shivering thing still, but does not always cuddle up to the space heater, even when it is available, so I'm not sure what to do about that. :(

The rest of the weekend was sort of a mish-mash of unsettling, disappointing, or otherwise unhappy things. An elusive motel that never did let us in, a smoking room that was what we were told was the only room available when others later got non-smoking accommodations, memories of time and place and the brain weasels associated with that, missed connections and misunderstandings, a disobedient body and a weekend-long headache, philosophical discussions that stirred a deep discontent, not nearly enough sleep, a speeding ticket and travel plans disrupted... By the time I got home I was just fried. I should have worked on a dozen things that had been back-burnered last week, but I crashed out for awhile, played with the birdies, pouted that my quart of chocolate ice cream somehow had managed to evaporate, took some meds for the still lingering headache, and went to bed for real. 

And today? I'm still stuck at work almost 3 hours after quitting time working on the formulary, which is due by midnight. *sigh*

Thank you to everyone who has inquired about poor Tweet. The first 24 hours were the riskiest and she has made it through those at least. She's still not a happy 'keet and is obviously a little cranky and cold. When I tried to dose her this afternoon, she tried to bite me (good sign, for her) but then decided my nice warm hand was not worth fighting and settled down (odd) and then let me tuck her into my jacket where she could snuggle up to me while I read (very odd). I have fencingkitty s heating pad on top of the cage and the top perch pulled way up high and that seems to be helping. We'll see how things go - she's not out of the woods yet, but things are more hopeful than when I went to bed yesterday with a 50/50 chance of only having four birdies in the morning. :(

******************************************************************

It has been a rough couple days, but practice and social were really good experiences tonight. I got to talk with folks, hear a lot of good wishes for poor Tweet, do some plotting for the coming months, and eat some very tasty food. An unasked for but most appreciated gesture at the end of social and some amusing conversations at home before bed made what had been a difficult day an actually pretty pleasant one. Thank you all.




EDIT: Thurs 9:30 AM - she's eating like a champ this morning and came down off the favorite perch. She's still clearly not at 100% and still looking greasy/bedraggled, but less unhappy than previous.

EDIT: Fri 2 AM - Hm... She's still doing the puffed up and chilly thing, but has been eating and successfully making Derelei keep his distance, so I think she's steadily improving...

I had been hoping that Miss Tweet would lay an egg in the next few days, because she has been making those sorts of signs and really seemed to dig the birdie-box. Well, today she sort of did. Seriously gross and a life-threatening sort of situation, so off to the pet ER we went...

Three hours and $150 later, she seems to be OK. They had to break the egg to get it out, so no egg and I am supposed to discourage further laying. She was supposed to have a night on her own, but clearly wanted to be back in the cage with the other birdies, so she's now quietly hanging out with Astrid, Alba and Nechtan. Derelei is now the one in solitary confinement (or probably more rightly: protective custody) because the stoopid goof tried getting it on with her about 15 minutes after she got back. I really thought she was going to peck him into next week...

There was a funny part to the night at least. The pet ER has a pet cat - Captain Crunch. He came over to investigate Tweet as I was checking out. At first, I was going to pull her cage to a safer spot, but Tweet seemed sort of interested and not at all perturbed, so I let him get closer. He kept creeping closer until he had his little nose pressed up against the travel cage and was clearing thinking hard about how to get at the new toy. Tweet stopped the indignant preening for a moment (she was covered in lube and dextrose from the procedures) and carefully evaluated this situation. She bit one of the cat's whiskers and, finding it inedible, went back to preening herself busily and ignoring him utterly. For his part, the cat was somewhat nonplussed by having his whisker pulled and then being ignored by this little snack. When the receptionist and I laughed at him, he backed off, pretending not to be THAT interested, but still shooting longing looks at the cage every couple seconds from the safety of the edge of the counter. It was a very LOL cats-esque moment, as he looked at the birdie and very clearly was thinking "I can haz? Plzthx?!?" I was sorry I did not bring the camera. ;)



EDIT - 1 AM - :(   Aw, dammit. Now she is not looking good. I can't get a significant amount of the sugar drops into her and she didn't really bite when I tried. I have seen her take a little water. I hung a sprig of millet *right* next to her and she ate a couple seeds. I can't tell if she is doing worse or just wiped out from a long day.

EDIT - 3AM - OK, I've seen her eat, drink, and preen herself in the last 15minutes. Not a lot of any of the above, granted, but enough that I'm gonna go try to sleep...

Please bear with me, this is a longish post... It has been a busy and difficult week with no posts, so now I have a bucket of little tidbits saved up that have been simmering for a few days - some brain stew, if you will. I likely will have one or two significant posts on specific topics in the coming days, but to get the little stuff out:


Linen
The first batch of linen came in. The good news? It will be $4/yard. The bad news? It is significantly lighter weight than the previous batches from this seller. I have some linen from other sources just arrived or enroute (from jtdiii and other dealers) so I should be able to fill all the orders for light-medium weight black linen, but I now have some excess 55" wide black handkerchief weight (~3.5 oz) linen for sale. I have about 60 yards, $4 a yard while it lasts - comment or email.  The gold linen is also in and cut, so orders for white, black, gold, and brocade linens will all be available for pickup at Coronation.


Birdies
Tweet and Derelei have pretty obviously decided to be a bonded pair and she has been making nesting-type gestures for a bit now, so I bought her a nesting box. However, this as brought issues with Astrid to a head - the boys were willing to accept the box as Tweet's and only Tweet's. They quickly clued in that they should not mess with it beyond the occasional nibble on a corner. Astrid is naughtier though. She was all interested in the box and, even after some pretty solid smack downs, insisted on messing with it. Nevermind that before this time she showed no interest in nesting and, even if she were interested, her potential partner options are... erm... poor. I lurves the boys, but they are somewhat lovably defective. I'm not even sure that they are clear that she's a girl. I eventually had to separate them so poor Astrid is spending some time in "birdie jail" - a smaller cage I keep for such eventualities. I'll give them a few days to cool down and then see if giving Astrid a box too will solve the problem. Keep your fingers crossed for me...


Work
Gods, work is eating my brainz. It is public enough now I can explain. Care Wisconsin is part of the Wisconsin Partnership Program (WPP) that serves at-risk populations of special needs patients. Care Wisconsin's population is almost 700 frail elderly patients. One of our sister WPP organizations, Community Living Alliance (CLA), serves Developmentally Disabled (DD) and Physically Disabled (PD)  populations. For a variety of reasons, they will be transferring all their Partnership patients to us as of May 1. That is nearly 400 extremely complicated patients suddenly joining our plan all at once, for a total census of 1,100 patients for whom I am responsible. Yoiks. This also means that since the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services won't let the get rolled into our existing formulary, I have to maintain and report on two separate programs through the end of the year (read: gigantic headache). Plus, the Nurse Practitioners at CLA are not used to our model of practice, so there will be a huge amount of adjustment and hand-holding in the coming months as the new staff and patients are integrated. I will have some pharmacy help for the month of May and we are looking to hire someone ASAP, but with the pharmacist market being what it is, I'm not very hopeful. We have a great work environment, great benefits, and we are doing good work. However, it is hard work and the compensation is below average, even for Madison, so it is hard to attract people away from the "big guys" like the UW and Walgreens. Throw in the added fun of developing the 2009 formulary and my days are packed and often long.


Sewing
I am so inspired by the books I have been reading, the files I have been obtaining from museums, and the lectures I went to in Milwaukee. Now I just need 20 yards of a scrumptious white and gold brocade, 100 yards of matching narrow trim, 40 yards of matching wide trim, 15 yards of a scrumptious velvet, 50 yards of compatible trim, 500 pearls, 1000 free hours to work on it and a budget of $4000 to appropriately accessorize. :P The late period stuff is so pretty, but SO expensive. (Note to all y'all beginning sewers - more expensive to do it right, not actually and harder, however.) At least I have a giant stash of pearls... Anyway, dread_ex, ladyroisin, relativelylucid, casslee, corvusjoyous and likely others will hopefully benefit from my recent studies as they have clarified how to correct some issues I've seen in dresses and how to go about correctly drafting others... Now just to find at least some of that time and motivation...


Library Woes
Some of you heard me complaining last week that I needed to return one of the books in my "permanent collection" - books hardly anyone else ever needs or uses and so live on my bookshelf where I can refer to them at my leisure, as I use them regularly. (whymc refers to his as his "remote library storage facility" so I'm not the only one...) However, I have not been good about checking my UW email this semester and, to my horror, I discovered last week that not only did some wretched little undergrad RECALL my book, but I was a miserable library patron and it was now overdue. Now this did not present a financial problem - the UW does not charge overdue fines - it DID however pose a problem for using ILL (Inter Library Loan) services, which were the reason I was logging in at all. Blast and Damn. So, I swiftly returned the book so I could have my ILL rights reinstated.

Tonight, I discovered that the wretched little undergrad who recalled the book was none other than
jinglymushroom... who was recalling it forilaifire. ;P At least I know the boy is using good sources.


May Day/Jararvellir's 35th Anniversary
Jara's Anniversary event (May 3) is coming up quite rapidly. The theme this year is an educational symposium. While there are a fair number of classes already on the schedule, we could use more. Please contact me if you would be willing to teach! My "One Kingdom" track only has one opening left, but there are many throughout the day. Also, Jara folk in particular - get in your Baronial and AoA recommendations ASAP so I can start plotting to give people what they des... errr... to reward people appropriately. ;)


Quest
I am planning on attending Quest this year and just bought the airline ticket, so I am pretty firmly committed. (It falls in May when I will be having back-up at work, so by god I'm going...) Since I don't get out to that end of the Kingdom terribly often, I am thinking about offering a class or two. Last time I was out there (Crown Tourney, Fall 2007) I offered both Research and the Pictish Tunic classes. Both of those classes had only about a half dozen students each, so it probably would be OK to do either or both of them again, but I have many others in the repertoir, including Pictish history, Whipcording, 10 sewing tips in 5 minutes or less apiece, dyeing, misc sewing and embroidery techniques, autocratting, waterbearing,  rapier armor/garb, beginning illumination, surviving War, building a period/periodiod kit, etc. plus others that could be developed based on interests/needs. The dyeing and C&I ones would be harder to transport materials for and/or teach in uncertain outdoors conditions, but the rest are do-able. Any of you folks with more of a grasp on the interests and needs of the West end of the Kingdom want to chime in on what I should offer to teach (either from the list or as a wish-list?)? Conversely, anyone who has been to Quest, could you tell me what you most recommend about the event?


Yay! That's all for now! Watch tomorrow for either a report on inspirational research or a session on pharmaceutical education, depending on time and my whim. Maybe you'll be "lucky" and get both.

I was messing with my birdies and was putting their gravity toys back on their cage when I had a strange experience. I bent down to pick up a toy, and straightened, apparently right into Nechtan's flight path, because the next thing I knew, I had a little birdie beak imprint on the back of my skull!

I'm fine and he seems to be OK too - we were just both rather surprised at the encounter!

Tweet is often the "tough chick" and keeps the other birdies in line. If there is an alpha in the Birdie Palace, it is definitely her.

This evening, however, I looked over to see extreme birdie cuteness... from TWEET! Prolonged birdie cuteness! She even let me sneak up on her to document the sweetness. :)



She really is preening Derelei, not pecking him in the face, which is more common. :P

I am in love. And I so should not be allowed to go to the pet store unsupervised. :P



Meet the new birdie - tentatively named Alba. So now we have left to right - Derelei (cramming his face, of course), Astrid, Tweet, Nechtan (front) and Alba (back). I had wanted a grey birdie, but got Astrid instead as the previous addition to the flock.

I was killing some time at a pet store and saw this sweet little guy. (It will be a few weeks before I know for sure what sex he is, so I am temporarily defaulting to the masculine.) He is a gorgeous and friendly, but a little quiet, so I hope he will be Nechtan's friend and sort of balance the flock since Derelei, Astrid and Tweet are all pretty aggressive. Plus, he completes my birdie rainbow, so barring taking in any more strays, I think my flock is complete!

Yesterday, they stayed separate and watched each other from across the room. Today there was some supervised play time. Tomorrow will be more of the same in the evening if I get back from Hromnice Day early enough, and Sunday there way be an in-cage trial of the new roommate. :)

OK, Usually I am not a "cute" kind of girl, but this is just sweet. Thanks to Berwyn for bringing it to my attention. The whole series is in Jan 30, 2008 on cuteoverload.com



Cute enough to make me a little nauseated, but it is a birdie triumphing over a silly kitty, so I can be OK with that. 

A few weeks ago, I commented that I was worried about the new birdie being a source of strife and stress in the birdie palace. I yelled at her, too, and told her she'd go back to the "seconds" birdie bin at the Animart if she didn't learn to be nicer. Well, like driving your beater car past a new car lot, that very day she suddenly and inexplicably started behaving better. Not perfect, mind you, but practically angelic compared to her previous behavior. She's even been observed singing happily and playing with Derelei. She is, in fact, currently doing the happy birdie dance and swinging in the hamster wheel. Silly birdie. There have been some games of "chase" but I have not seen her peck anybody in the face in days... even when Derelei probably deserved it. I can't explain the good behavior, but I'm not going to complain. *sigh* Now if she would just learn to "step up" to come out of the cage for play time - she's happy to fly out once she figures out that the boys are flying around the room without her.   

So... this means that I need to stop calling her "the new one" and "the yellow birdie." I don't have any really great ideas for a name - the only idea I have been kicking around was "Weld" the name of a plant used to produce a yellow dyebath. Therefore, I appeal to you, gentle readers - what do you think is a good name for a pretty yellow birdie with a tendancy to be a little naughty and bossy?

So, awhile ago I got a fourth birdie... She is very pretty and was chosen because she seemed assertive enough to hold her own against Derelei (very persistent and energetic) and Tweet (kinda crabby). Well, she does that and more... I'm worried that she's starting to stress out the other birdies. I think I have not yet picked a name for her in part because I don't want to develop too much of an attachment to her if I need to eventually give her up. However, since I seriously started worrying that she is causing too much turmoil in Birdieland, she has been an angelic little ball of fluff the last day or so...  at least while I have been watching. *sigh* So now I am conflicted...

Many changes in Birdieland today!

First, they got a new cage - a giant ~30"x24"x55" cage.

Then, they got a new toy - a bright yellow hamster wheel. Some pet stores put them in bird cages and hilarity results. :)

And then they got a new friend! She doesn't have a name yet, but she's a pretty yellow and white parakeet. I watched the bin o' budgies for awhile and picked out the naughtiest little bird I could find. ;)

Derelei is, of course, thrilled. Nechtan doesn't really care and Tweet seems a bit confused and/or threatened. All night, Derelei is scooting between Tweet and the new girl, chattering happily to both. Currently, Derelei is singing loudly to himself, the girls are sitting next to one another preening furiously, and Nechtan is just watching the three of them from a safe distance...  

Yay! Birdie happiness! 

OK - it has now been confirmed that Tweet is getting out of the cage by some means other than the doors. Even with all five of the doors securely clipped shut, she got out at least once this weekend. My fat little birdie-boys have lived in that cage for 3-5 years and have not mastered whatever magic trick she has learned in only a few months. I still don't really completely believe that she is squeezing between the bars, but I also know that corvusjoyousis unlikely to be lying to me about this... I'll just have to keep an eye on her to see it for myself. I had been thinking about getting them a flight cage - I guess this means I am looking for one with very narrow slots between the bars.

Now her next big project apparently is to get the food scoop out of the food bin...

So, apparently the boys smell funny... This past weekend, Tweet figured out how to get out of the cage and promptly started escaping every chance she got. Therefore, last night, I securely locked the main door and twisty-tied the other doors shut. 

Today, she was out again - Twice! 

All the doors seem to be still secured, so I am uncertain how this has exactly occurred... Apparently, I have a  feathered Houdini on my hands!

In the cool of evening, a cat sits on the patio,
nose pressed firmly against the windowpane, 
staring longingly at birds flying through the room 
and wondering at a world suddenly inverted.

This weekend, amid all the other craziness, I acquired another birdie. valkyr8 found a birdie in her yard some time ago, but it seemed to be lonely, so Tweet has now come to live with Derelei and Nechtan. They are not roommates yet, but the three of them have been spending a lot of playtime together and seem to be getting along well. Derelei was wildly excited about having a GIRL over to play and so was a little bit hyperactive for the first few days but is making progress with settling down.  

Alex the Grey Parrot has also left these lands. He was an important reminder to us that intelligence is not reserved to us monkey-folk.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/09/12/parrot.obit.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest

So... my older birdie Derelei has always been seriously obsessed with food but never really figured out the whole clear plastic thing. I don't mind mild torture of my pets, so I decided to try an experiment.


Hypothesis:
Birdie is more interested in food than freedom.

Experimental method:
Step 1: put birdie in food bin
Step 2: watch as birdie becomes deeply conflicted -
      "Must escape! Seed! Oh,  yeah - escape! But there is SEED! Must...mescamph...munchmunchmunch....
       Maybe I'll just eat my way out..."
Step 3: giggle
Step 4: rescue birdie before he eats enough to pop. (Birdie, BTW, is not entirely thrilled to be rescued.)



Results:
Birdie does indeed prefer gorge on seed than seek escape. Furthermore, a birdie in a bin is funny.

Now, I'm thinking this counts as a true experiment - we have active reagents, a procedure, and I'm really pretty sure the results are infinitely repeatable...