Thursday, November 20, 2014

Frigid weather, first fires

It's cold out today, unusually so for this time of year. From the very beginning, this month has been setting records for winter weather. On Nov 1 a city an hour west of my home got snow---the earliest snowfall in something like 150 years. There has been frost almost every night since. Then, night before last, the temperature dropped to 18°F, breaking records for this time of year. Nights that cold rarely happen in January, much less November.

On frigid nights like these, I'm grateful this house has a fireplace. Nothing makes you toasty warm and comfortable like a good fire, and the flames always seem cheerful. Being able to have fires this early in the year has been one advantage of the cold, cold weather. Any extra cheer on these long winter nights is most welcome. I've found that a small glass of rum laced eggnog sipped in front of the fire doesn't hurt either!

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Candy Mischief

Halloween was a bit of a bust. I bought candy and small toys, lit up the plastic jack-o-lanterns, and rushed home from work to be here in time to welcome any kids that showed up. Unfortunately, not a single trick or treater rang the bell. I wasn't altogether surprised, since our neighborhood runs mostly to retired couples. We never see very many, but none at all was a letdown. The only good part of that was all the leftover candy.

A bowl of which we had on our kitchen counter, beside Marco's cage.

And he's a little terrorist that lives for trouble and sneaking around. We should have known better.

I got home from work the other night and my husband met me at the door to tell me that Marco had raided the candy bowl. He had been playing happily on top of his cage for an hour, and so my husband forgot he was out and went to the other room to mess around on the computer. When he finally remembered and went to check on Marco, that crazy bird had eaten most of a miniature Heath chocolate bar! We were worried about the chocolate, but he seemed fine afterwards, and so we threw away the bowl of (half-chewed) candies and forgot about it. Until the next morning.

Once again, Mr. Man was playing on top of his cage. I went to the bathroom, and then made a couple of phone calls. When I went back to check on him, he was gone. After searching the house, I finally found him in the dining room. Somehow, he had figured out that we still had some candy left in a plastic bag on the dining room table. This is how I found him:


Enjoying a Whopper malted milk ball, and making a chocolatey mess on my grandmother's lace tablecloth.