The tragic misadventures of an American English teacher returned from abroad
I can’t remember what game it was exactly, but whilst watching a Bulls game on TV, I realized one of the dancers looked really familiar, like one of the dancers I knew from the Redline Express at Illinois State.
So I looked up the Luvabulls, and it turns out it is a girl I knew from my marching days.
Good on you, Carissa!
For some reason, I find this really cool.
For whatever reason, that is the phrase I seem to be repeating to Tiger. I should really change it up to “Watchoo!” and then build on it to become “Whatchu doin’?” like so many other budgies I’ve heard say, but “Hey Tiger, Tiger” seems to be sticking for me.
Anyway, for those of you who have not seen Tiger, and if you care to, meet Tiger:
Tiger is still a bit discombobulated. He won’t voluntarily step up on my finger to take him out of the cage, but he will eat from my left hand when it is presented to him. I can pet Tiger with either hand as well. Today when I took Tiger out of the cage to roam around on the floor, he voluntarily came to my right index finger.
Tiger is still very quiet as well. I tried to get him to respond to Sven, but perhaps Sven’s language is too complex for him. He responded to a few baby budgie videos, and strangely enough, Tiger likes Glee’s cover of “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Rehab”.
This morning when Tiger was scratching his head, he lost his balance, and fell off his perch. I tried not to laugh, but it was pretty funny. I asked Toni if that made me a bad owner; she said it doesn’t.
From the coloring, I actually think he’s a dominant pied dilute, not a cinnamon.
So yeah, that’s Tiger, Tiger.
Sometimes being single on Valentine’s Day is boring. But it’s so much more fun when you spend it with friends.
Whilst the Welcome to the World Baby Morgan party was winding down on Saturday night, those of us who were still around mentioned we should all hang out on Valentine’s Day while the couple-y type people did their couple-y type things. This party included Brad, Mike, VoW, and myself — coincidentally, this was also something of a reunion of the Europe Road Trip people. We made plans to have dinner at Sushi Station at 5 o’clock in effort to beat the Valentine’s Day dinner couples.
After acquiring Tiger and trying to bond with her for a spell (I shall probably use pronouns interchangeably until I suss out what sex Tiger is), I hopped in the car to go to sushi. It’s been just about a year and a half since I’d been to Sushi Station and my memory of how long it takes to get there were a little fuzzled — for the record, it doesn’t take 20 minutes. I was a little early.
No matter since everyone else arrived pretty much within minutes of each other. Once we were all sitting down, I realized and commented on the fact that those of us in attendance were also the ones who went to Europe. This launched a “sometimes its easier to be single” conversation and all the things we unattached are able to do/afford because we only have to think of ourselves.
I’ve said it before and this will probably remain a fact for quite some time: eating sushi frequently reminds me of how much I miss Japan. If anything, for the price of sushi! I’d forgotten how expensive kaiten-zushi can be when not paying all-you-can-eat! I only had about five plates of nirigir, a bowl of miso soup, and green tea. On the amusing side, all of this cost me $21.00 before tip.
Since VoW is the one who gave Tiger his name, it only made sense that she come back to the house and see him. This of course prompted invitations to both Mike and Brad.
Tiger sure warmed up to Mike; when Tiger saw him, she promptly pooped.
It had been something like ten years since Brad was last in my house, and in those years plenty had changed. He and Mike talked about the remodeled kitchen while I stressed about whether or not Tiger had eaten. (He hadn’t.)
Since my brother has a PS3 and Brad caught sight of the Star Trek Blu-Ray DVD, we decided to put it in. At the time it was suggested, it was thought that we would only watch a little bit of the film. What foolish, foolish thought! Being the geeks we are we just had to finish out watching! (Not that it was a difficult thing to do — ’tis a great film!)
I fully expected people to part company thereafter; but no, because I said something about pie, it was decided that we would go forth in search of it. We had our hearts set on Baker’s Square but all the ones we knew of had closed in recent years. After some iPhoning, we managed to find one in Palatine that was still open. It has definitely been years since I’d last been to a Baker’s Square!
You would have thought our evening ended after pie but again, I was mistaken! We ended up going back to Mike’s house for a bit to just chillax. In fact, our evening did not end until midnight! ‘Twas a most unexpected, but incredibly delightful way to spend Valentine’s Day.
It was an even better start to the Year of the Tiger.
1. Budgie
As many of you know, I have been obsessed with getting a new budgie. I’d talked myself into waiting many times already (I’d wanted one since first being back).
I finally caved.
Tiger looks to be a cinnamon mutation dominant pied. For the record, I’m not too certain about the cinnamon part. His coloring looks a bit more brown than the usual black so that is what gives me that notion. I am also not completely certain of Tiger’s sex as Tiger is still an adolescent budgie; the cere (nose) won’t change to the proper coloring until Tiger is mature. I have the feeling it’s a girl, but I’m somewhat hoping for a boy since most of the male budgies I’ve owned have all had easygoing temperament.
Here’s hoping that Tiger will be a good budgie. So far, he is really quiet. It has been over ten years since I have trained a store-bought budgie. I am concerned about his lack of chirping but I’ve read that this is pretty common in new budgies. I also feel bad for the little guy; he went from having a huge flock of friends to just chillin’ out with me.
Once Tiger figures out I’m a decent human, I’m hoping to be able to clicker train him to do tricks like Duke Budgie.