Friday bullets, March 9, 2018

And it's Friday again. Funny how that happens.

  • The chicks and ducklings are all still alive. The first few days are always the most critical, so we're happy to see everyone alive and well each morning.
  • Last Friday, J. and I had a little vacation. We went downtown to see a show that M. had worked on, and then used our credit card points to stay overnight at a hotel. The highlight of our little vacation was closing our old checking account at our old bank, since we were in the area.
  • We have left Japan, and will be heading to China on Monday. We have learned the hard way that we have to be careful in how we speak about this. R. now has it in her head that we are actually going to get on an airplane and fly to China. No amount of words to the contrary can convince her otherwise. Someone is going to have a disappointing week next week.
  • It has not been a good week in terms of meals over here... at least from my perspective. I'm always trying new recipes, because I can't stand having the same things over and over. (I probably go a month in between cooking the same recipe twice.) Well, two of the new recipes I tried were king of meh. One I really didn't care for, but some other people liked it. The other was just a little odd, and I won't be making it again. A. was digging around in the refrigerator looking for lunch, and asked what was yummy in the refrigerator. I replied I hadn't made anything yummy for days. She laughed, and then sprang for frozen pizza for the masses for lunch yesterday.
  • I mentioned in a previous post that B. has a new job. Take a look at one of the things he gets to do in this job.
  • J. is planning on using B.'s skills to help put up the zipline that M. gave everyone for Christmas now that it is warmer. Once again, I will feel as though any friends coming over to play should have to sign a liability waiver first. 
  • Can I talk about the chicks and ducks some more? Can I say again how cute they are? Can I mention that having a kitchen full of chicks and ducklings is a great distraction to getting anything at all done?
  • Since I'm sure you all agreed that I can talk about them more, let me tell you a little about ducklings. I realize that some of my readers have first hand experience with them, but I also know the vast majority of my readers are in much more urban environments, and don't have ducklings living in their backyards, much less kitchens. First they are cute. Have I mentioned that? Look at the little webby feet!
Ignore the poop. It is impossible to get a photo without poop, because they are little poop machines.

But on top of being cute, they are the messiest little animals I have ever met. They adore water. They walk in their water. They splash in their water. They throw their water around. And within 10 minutes of cleaning their brooder box, they will have it swamped with water all over again. They are also perpetual motion machines. When they are not asleep, they waddle around between their water and their food. They drink and throw some water around, go get a nibble of food, go back to the water, back and forth, back and forth, over and over. All the while they are doing this, their little bodies are positively vibrating. When you watch them, it's as though they are not quite in focus because they are vibrating so much.




The chicks are also cute, but while messy, they are positively Felix Unger in comparison with the ducklings. The ducklings move as a little herd and do not really care to be held. The chicks are happy to sit in open hands and be lightly petted. The chicks also do things much more individually than the ducklings do. A. really wants to name one of the ducks, Daisy, but to me they are really more like Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly, and Perfect from the Tacky the Penguin books. They all move together, they all look exactly alike, and it's very difficult to tell any of them apart. If only we had a black and white duck, too, we could name it Tacky.
  • I know, I know. I said no names. You didn't really think that was going to last, did you?
  • Olive is a little obsessed with the chicks and ducks. She spends lots and lots of time with her nose to the wire over the boxes. Kenzie looked at them all once, gave a sniff, walked away, and has given them no attention what so ever. We can have the brooder boxes open with him in the room, and he doesn't care at all. The cats... well, they are cats with birds in the kitchen. Nefertiti spends her days crouched at one of the corners between the boards staring, staring, staring. If sheer will power could draw the little birds into her mouth, they would all be gone by now. Midnight finds them interesting when he can be bothered. If they were to turn into bread and butter, I think they would hold much more interest for him.
  • Speaking of Midnight... have you ever read the picture book, Bad Kitty? It's hardly great literature, but is one of those books that people want read a lot, and I'm always quite happy to return to the library. Midnight has become our bad, bad, kitty, hunting bread and butter relentlessly. The other day, K. had a sandwich on the counter wrapped in paper and foil. J. walked into discover K. chasing Midnight around the house trying to get the sandwich that the cat was carrying around. The sandwich the cat had extracted from the paper and foil. Bad, bad, kitty.
  • I want warm weather.
  • Today I have promised P. that I will make her high school transcript. This is a job that I don't look forward to. I don't know why. It's not that difficult, and P. kept great records, I just don't like it. It's kind of like taxes. Which are also on the to do list.
And since I have promised this transcript will be done today, I should move along with the day's to do list. Happy Friday!

Comments

Kristin Mueller said…
I get bored with recipes, too. Have you tried any from the Good Cheap Eats blog? I find lots of good, cheap ones there. :)

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