Bogieblog

Song of the Times

So I know the sopa/PIPA ado is done (for now, until Congress reworks it and hopes no one is paying attention except the PACS), but I just came across this on New Jovian Thunderbolt, and had to share.

 

Birdie Gets A Shower

I clean Birdie's cage on a regular basis, but a lot of times it is just the lower half. Every tow months or so, I clean the whole thing which can be interesting since Birdie is a true homebody and will not get out of the cage, except by accident. He will not allow me to remove him from the cage (although he will get on my finger if he accidently gets out of the cage - which is truly accidental as he doesn't mean to get out and doesn't want out).

Birdie is a not-too-bright bird that is befuddled by the cage door being open; he has a hard time deciding how to navigate around it on the way to the food bowl. On one occasion, years ago, he actually climbed out and onto the top of the cage (by accident I assure you) and he couldn't figure out how to climb back down to the open door. So, it is for the best that he doesn't like to get out of his cage.

So, the challenge is to clean the cage while he is still in it. I take everything out except for one small perch, whcih is where Birdie stays until I put the cage back together. I take off the bottom pieces and clean them in the tub, drain the water, and then it is time for the wire portion.

The cage barely fits into the bathtub, but once in there I use the shower hose to rinse off the wires. Then I use a plain (no soap) scrubber sponge to remove any residue. Lastly, I clean the bird. Birdie loves a shower, so I decrease the pressure, bring the hose head below Birdies perch and arch the the water towards him.

 

 

 

That is both of our favorite parts of cleaning the cage - Birdie looks so content as he bobs and weaves his head around to get it in just the right position (sometimes in the water, sometimes out of the water stream). The last picture says it all - ahh, the perfect position.

Group Cat Picture

Late afternoon or early evening, Shadow and Fuzzy get their "treat", about a Tablespoon of canned food each. Shadow and Fuzzy will tolerate eating beside each other at this one time of day. Tory does not usually indulge in canned food, he just isn't interested. However, one afternoon, he was up on the table and decided he wanted a little of the good stuff, so the configuration of cats had to be adjusted.

Foreground: Shadow (black cat); Background: Tory on the left (standing) and Fuzzy on the right.

Note that Birdie is watching the goings on as he knows that he gets his treats next (okay, just more seed, but it is a mixture for wild birds, not his normal cockatiel mixture).

Okay, after making you look at cat butts, I'l give you a cat face. Instead of jumping up on the platform the water is kept on, Fuzzy dows yoga stretching to get to the water - that is his main form of exercise.

In case you didn't notice, his paw is actually in the water, and yes, he does that almost every time.

Of course he has so much hair between the eight or so toes he has on each paw, that he probably doesn't even realize that the paw is in the water. And yes, he does leave fairly large water marks wherever he walks afterwards. But, he is so darn cute that I can't get upset over that little detail!

Festive Scenting

Wow, 22 days into the month and I haven't posted any pictures - I know because I had to make a new folder for 2012 pictures on my computer. So Let's get to it:

Earlier this month, I decided to take all the remnants of candles and create a new candle. In the batch was a complete green candle that I had sitting on the wood stove while the woodstove was going. That had the desired effect of releaseing the scent, but on a weekend long burn (during the week it is only at night), most of the wax melted and the wick dripped to the bottom of the wax.

Then there was a previously mixed candle (which mixture turned purple) in shich the wax in the middle melted, but not the sides. It had melted several inches down, so I chipped off the wax pieces from the sides and added that. There were also several scentless, white tea lights that I wanted to use up, so mixing them with scented wax seemed reasonable. I had bought wick material so all I needed to do was gather some patience and start melting.

I tried the microwave first, but didn't like how hot the glass jar I was using was getting with very little meltage of wax. So, I placed the glass container in a pan of water and heated it on the stove. Since I didn't want the candle to turn out brownish, from mixing several different colors, I melted each of the colors seperately (except when adding the white tea lights). After each color was poured into the new candle jar, I would place it outside to solidify while melting the next batch.

After way too long, I ended up with a decorative candle that will be used some day (we have lots of candles that are either new or in good shape):

Okay, so the color combination leaves a bit to be desired, but it is on the festive side, and who really looks at candles anyway? They are for imparting a nice scent (or getting rid of yucky scents), so it will do very well for my purposes.

Game Day Commercial Preview

According to the Weekend Pundit, this will be an ad airing during the Super Bowl. You need to have the speakers on (no, there aren't any loud noise surprises), and have a small familiarity with Star Wars (and the music). Hint: The first thing to note is the title . . .

 

For Airplane Nuts

Some pretty fancy flying:

Found thru Scott.

Party Time

We went and visited the bikes yesterday. You may, or may not, recall that we store our bikes at the dealers so that they are in climate controlled location where they can do the maintenance and keep the batteries charged. Where we store them (Heritage Harley Davidson - just to give them a plug) has a winter storage party for those who, you guessed it, store their bikes there. Each person who stores a bike gets an invitation to the party, and can bring another person with them. Previously, I have gone with WS, as his guest. This year, we each got to take a guest; I took SIL and WS took Kenny.

The Winter Storage Party is always fun. One of the activities they have is an indoor poker run. The premis is to visit 5 areas of the store, draw a card and whoever has the best poker hand at the end of the day wins a prize. I was doing well, with 4 clubs (2, 3, 5 and Jack - where the heck did the jack come from?). Then my luck ran out as I drew the 4 of spades. WS got a pair and SIL got two pair. The winner at the end of the day got 4 kings with an Ace high. Lucky guy.

They have a chili cookoff too. Employees bring in crockpots of their best chili, the WSP goers sample them and vote on their favorite. In addition to chili, there are cheese and meat platters as well as vegetable platters. Salsa anc tortilla chips are availabel too. Along with good food, each invitee and guest gets two tickets for drinks (beer or wine). There is also water and soada available.

Every year they run some sort of presentation or demo. This year they held two seminars on Screaming Eagle performance parts. We attended the second seminar which consisted of a slide show narrated by the Service Manager and his best dynotune tech, along with special presenter; Screaming Eagle President (or Vice President, I am unsure which). They also had displays set up with techs ready to answer questions. for those that done't know, Screaming Eagle performance parts are what are developed and used on the HD race team bikes (NHRA, AHRA etc). Some of the parts are street legal, others aren't. By attending this presentation, not only did you get to learn some cool stuff while gathering knowledge that may help on deciding on upgrades for bikes, but also each participant was given a ticket for a special raffle drawing at the end of the day. They were giving away three items: Stage 1 high flow air cleaner, Super Tuner, and big bore heads.

At the end of the day are the raffle drawings (each attendee and guest got a ticket for the general raffle when signing in), prize giveaway to the poker run winner, and announcement of the chili cook off winner. Kenny won a t-shirt from the general raffled. During the Screaming Eagle seminar drawing, WS won the air cleaner, which is worth about 1/2 the cost of storing his bike, so he made out pretty well.

I meant to take pictures of the bikes (as I did last year), but forgot. Suffice it to say, it looked like they were in good company and were getting treated well.

It was good to get out and relax, meet new people, talk to techs, eat food and win prizes. This morning WS had to get up and go out to one of his jobs to try to correct some issues. He won't be having any fun, it was 2 degrees when he left an hour ago, the wind is not quiet and the temps are supposed to only get up into the teens (yes, he will be working outdoors). He is bundled up, but still, it won't be fun. I'm glad he got a chance to de-stress yesterday before having to go out today!

Take a Hint

To those of you that have vehicles that aren't capable, have tires that aren't capable, or plain old aren't capable yourselves of driving in 2" of snow: stay the heck off the roads until the plows and sanders have been out and done their thing.

It is not acceptable to drive 10-15 MPH (for many, many, many miles) in just slightly less than optimal conditions.

When Exactly is Talk Like a Pirate Day?

☠

Because I felt like SHE was daring anyone else to do it.

Lightness

I'll start the day with some light and funny stuff from LOLCats: