Jennifer's 365 Project

I originally adopted Dinah around May of 2004 to be a companion for another parakeet, Alice. Oddly enough, I had adopted Alice to be a companion to Anastasia, an unhappy parakeet that loathed humans. And while Alice was friendly enough, I was in college and working so I decided to get her a cage-mate. And along came Dinah.
We've had our ups and downs, Dinah and I. Not a strong flyer or a fan of me, she enjoyed life with a cage that was almost always open and a steady supply of pellets and toys. When I came home with Leki, life did change a little but she always had her own room away from Leki where she could relax and sing.
Things really started to change when I met Chris and moved in with him. Dinah was so much happier. She sang to him, demanded to be let out to spend time with him, and even groomed him. She adored him. She even got her own away cage, which she loved to hang out in out and about in the rest of the apartment (and safe from an excitable cat).

Dinah seemed a little down when we came home from work yesterday. She was on the floor of the cage hanging out, which is odd for a parakeet. She did perk up and start singing and eating pellets and seeds when we moved her into the room to hang out with us though.

Dinah isn't the friendliest of parakeets I know. Not the meanest, but certainly not anything like her cage-mate Alice was, who was more interested in interacting with people. Since living with Chris, Dinah's attitude has drastically changed. She is much friendlier (to Chris) and has now taken to demanding certain types of activities. Like being put in her "away cage" pictured above and carried around.

Her normal cage is a larger cockatiel cage, so Chris wanted to get her something smaller. Several months later Dinah has now learned how to demand to be put into the cage and taken to wherever Chris is by letting out ear-piercing (to me) screeches. Clever bird.

In the afternoon Chris and I decided to do a mini-marathon of The Walking Dead.  It's a zombie show on AMC based on the comic The Walking Dead.  I wanted to read the comics before finishing the show, but after listening to Adam and Comfort yesterday I decided I'd try watching it to see how it holds up as a show as opposed to a comparison to the comic (which is how they are trying to look at it vs a lot of people we know are looking at it).  We're 1/2 way through episode 5 (out of 6) and so far I'm on the fence.  It's kind of like The Stand meets zombie movies.  Unfortunately, I don't really care about any of the characters. Maybe that will help me not have nightmares (as I'm not a huge zombie fan, but vampires have been destroyed in recent years).


Around 4:30pm we caught wind that Bernie Sanders had been "filibustering" in the senate on the tax cut since 10:25am, so we stopped watching The Walking Dead and turned on C-SPAN 2.  Amazingly there was hardly any coverage on any other news channels and barely anything in print.  Guess that's why it took us 6 hours to hear anything.

We've been watching C-SPAN 2 for a few hours now. On a Friday night.  And I'm totally digging it.

Today has been just a random assortment of things. We did some running around for a few hours to different local Meijer stores, searching for some cheap action figures (since they're on sale this week).  I stumbled across a plethora of Webkinz, including an opossum. I looked for a ferret but no such luck.

I played some Lord of the Rings Online just doing miscellaneous quests I'd had sitting in my log for awhile. I figure with Cataclysm coming out in a few days I'll likely be absorbed with that, so best to spend some time in Middle Earth now.

Dinah got to spend a much larger chunk of the day in her away cage while Chris hung out in the living room. Leki left her alone for the most part so she was able to relax a bit more.

I did make some cookies (chocolate chip) and still have some dough in the fridge chilling.  I'll attempt gingerbread cookies tomorrow night I think.

Dinah is our 6 1/2 year old parakeet.  She's never had a history of being friendly with people but over the past year she's become increasingly tolerant of me and she flat out loves Chris.

She will screech incessantly when she wants his attention and she's always up for being handled and having her chest rubbed - by him.

So this weekend we finally set out on a mission; picking up an "away cage" for her.  Her normal cage is actually a cockatiel cage, so it's a little large and doesn't fit everywhere. Chris wanted to find something we can put her in (to protect her from an over zealous cat) and have her around while we are elsewhere in the apartment.

So far it seems like the system will work out well, once she is ok with the change in scenery.  She's willing enough to hop into a new cage, but the cat understandably makes her nervous.

We also spent part of the day out searching for more Lego Mini Figures. Here's a short video Chris put together of our adventures.  If you missed it, the first bit of our quest is here.

A typical scene where the cat gazes longingly at the bird from below...

The next step is usually to shove a paw between the bars and desperately attempt to snag the parakeet while listening to me scream.