Life At Home - What's been going on lately?

[Monica]

I'm curious as to what everyone has been up to lately??? We all talk and dote on our birds, and learn from each other, so maybe it'll be a good idea to see what every person is up to themselves!

For me, my sister and her husband are back from New Zealand (my sister went over for two years.... they met over the internet through me, Scott is a native Kiwi, so he came over here for about 6 months to visit, and went back home... Jess later on went back over for a while and now they are both back to stay!). Since they have returned, the house hasn't exactly been quiet anymore, let alone clean (to keep it clean, we need to constantly clean it every day.... I'm used to having to clean the house up max once a week!).

For some time, we went down to southern California (not far north of San Fransisco) to visit with a friend, and we all got sick! We've been back up since Wednesday last week. When we arrived back, Noel had an injury to her head. There's a spot of blood above her eye, and some slight bruising on her eyebrow. I was able to contact my avian vet on Thursday, and he said that as long as she appears normal and there doesn't seem to be any major problems that she'll probably be fine and to just keep an eye on her. So far so good, she's still acting normal, and she's starting to look better as well!

Other than that, I now have my computer back up and running! YIPPEE!!!! Several months ago, my computer and my mothers computer went down hill (I believe it was because of two kids who used them, since they went down at the same time). I was able to salvage my mothers computer and was able to get it back up and running as normal as ever, however my computer completely died... I cleaned the hard drive off, and tried to re-install Windows XP Home Edition, though it would never properly load. My mother thought it was the hard drive's fault so bought me a knew hard drive (an 80 gig hard drive, my first being about 3gigs, and my second being 60 gig... heck, I can hardly even use 20 gigs of space!), and we tried again with Windows XP Professional... that didn't work as it got just as far as the Home Edition did...

My mother then thought it was the motherboard, though someone suggested the problem was the memory... A 256MB memory stick was delivered here (via my sister from my mothers work), I removed my 256MB and 32MB sticks, and put in the new one... VOILA! It works! So one or both of the old memory sticks are bad, and we need to now figure out which one... Other than that, I now have my computer back up and running with a new hard drive, new memory, and even a defect set of wireless keyboard and mouse! The mouse is a defect so they couldn't sell it, but it was too cheap to send it back, so my mother brought it home for me... It's a nice savvy black keyboard and mouse combo, and I have yet to have any problems with them!

Add to all that, I also have a DVD player that I can now use to play movies on! Of course, if I DO use it for movies, I'm more than likely to put the Bird Sitter DVD in and play it for my birds once I get a desk back into my room!



So, is there anything interesting or new happening in your part of the neighborhood???

[Peregrine Harlequin]

Since mom had her hysterectomy on 10/26 I've practically been her slave. So I've learned how it feels to be a housewife. So that's definitely something to keep in mind for if I ever get married some day.

So between taking care of the birds, keeping up on the outside birds, assorted domestic chores, and trying to keep mom from doing too much too fast, I've been trying to read. I currently have two books out of the library, one from my brother, and one borrowed from a friend. So in my spare time I've been trying to read, hence my absence from reading posts here every day.

Every Wednesday night four of us get together to play D&D ("Dungeons & Dragons" for the uninitiated). Last week we fought a bunch of orcs and trolls. Fun stuff.

On Mondays my mom's uncle sometimes goes out for day trips, so we've been encouraging him to take her out. Sure, getting jostled about in a car all day probably isn't too good for her stomach, but it's better than all the stuff she'd otherwise be trying to do at home.

So I've been kind of busy lately, and couldn't meet up with some of you people in Philly. And now I think my sister probably has the flu, so it's probably best I didn't infect everyone on Saturday.

Oh, and after much poking and prodding I've finally gotten meself onto myspace.com. So if anyone is nosey enough to check that out, my profile name is peregrine_harlequin.

[Monica]

Everyone has been getting a flu or some type of virus... I know around here one spread which was pretty bad! If you had it, you didn't want to eat or drink for fear of it coming back up, and you were afraid to move a muscle (even if lying down) for fear of having to run to the bathroom even if there was nothing in your stomach to begin with!

I've been wondering where you have been lately! Glad to see that you stopped on in!

I've never played D&D, though I DO have the game... maybe I'll try and install it again though it never worked before... hmmm... As far as any games that I do have or might play, I have Diablo, the entire set, being the original, DII, and the expansion. I also have another DII and Expansion disks. I don't play the game anymore though. I may occasionally play Runescape but if I do normally only in the evenings. My sister had another one for me to try out, Guild Wars.

Generally speaking though, I don't play a lot of games, nor hardly watch any tv as I'd rather spend my time reading various types of books or books on birds... However I've read all the books here that I am interested in reading! I guess though that maybe I should look through my sisters and her husbands to see if they have anything of interest...

[Alika]

My best friend and her baby visited from out of town this past weekend. It was nice to have them here, but I wasn't sorry to see them leave. As much as I'd like a baby, I have to admit, I can wait a little longer now!

My sister, who's in vet school, added a GCC to her zoo this past week. Now she has a couple of cats, sugar gliders, and a bird. She's been thinking about getting one forever, and has really done her research, but she's going to study in Africa for two months next year, and I don't know what she's going to do with her bird. I suppose auntie Ali could babysit :)

My husband's car is still in the shop. It's been there for two months. The rear differential went out because some idiot (before we bought it last year) put two different sized tires on it (it's an AWD, Subaru). So, of course, we had to let them put new tires on it, too. It's going to cost us $900 to get it out of there, which is why it's been in there for so long.

In the meantime, I have been driving him to work in the morning. It's not too bad on mornings I have to work, except that it usually makes me get to work 20 min. early... not too big of a deal. But on days like today when I'm not working all day but I need the car (I have an ethics discussion meeting to go to), I still have to get up early and drive him to work.

So, yeah... my mood is lacking in several... um... nice components. But I'm sure it will improve over the next couple of hours.

The ethics meeting... the aviary is bringing in this guy to lead a discussion in ethics so we can examine the way we do things. We've been told that he's anti-zoos and captivity, so everyone is really nervous about it. Those who aren't a little overly defensive are seriously worried that this guy will convince them that they need to get out of the zoo business and get a new job. I'm nervous because I don't know what to expect, but I think it will be good for me to hear the arguments for and against certain practices, such as weight control and pinioning. It will help me develop my opinions more and have a firmer base in my beliefs so I can explain and defend them better to others.

Oh, sorry... went off on a work tangent.

[LMPego]

Well, I quit my night job at the end of October, so I'm home in the evenings now, which is nice, but I'm broke! I'm currently spending all my time working on my Christmas projects - as of last night I have 4 projects on knitting needles!

[Alika]

Originally Posted by LMPego

as of last night I have 4 projects on knitting needles!

Oh, I wish I were so talented!

[ladyscroller]

I have been very busy running back and forth to the hospital my Dad has emphysema and has not been doing very well. They found a new antibiotic that is helping him but we had to put him in a nursing home until the antibiotic is finished (very expensive medicine and the only way medicare would pay was to put him there) But luckily I work there and can see him and check up on him daily. Hopefully he will get to come home this week.
I really need to get cutting on some scroll saw pictures as I have a craft show coming up the 26th. I havent cut a thing in ages and I really need to get back at it.
Between that and the grandson I always seem to be busy.
Linda

[cfulhage]

ladyscroller, I am sorry to hear about your dad. Glad they found an antibiotic that is working! I'm sending thoughts and prayers your way.

I haven't been up to much lately, just studying. Seems like the professors are punishing us before thanksgiving break! When I'm not studying I'm taking care of Ollie or babysitting for my 6 month old niece.

I was hoping to take a trip to Atlanta next weekend with my dad, but he decided to go scuba diving instead. Which reminds me, I'm going to be taking scuba diving lessons through the university next semester (hopefully!) so I can go with my dad. I'm getting tired of getting left behind when he goes to Cancun, Belize, Cozumel...I'm just crossing my fingers that I can fit the classes into my schedule!

Besides that, I'm just really looking forward to thanksgiving break-starting a week from tomorrow!

[spectre]

Having passed my written qualifiers last year I have just now finished working 7 days a week for 2 months and have succesfully defended my masters thesis. I am now an official candidate in the University of Colorado's Astrophysics PhD program.

This of course means I have been back practicing rock climbing and hitting multi-pitch big walls :)

Soon it will be the ski season here in Colorado and I will take to tearing up the slopes on a weekly basis and supplant that with allot of good winter alpine mountaineering.

Topping it off is the inevitable addition of either a GW macaw in june or an adopted B&G in the next few weeks. Haven't decided.

Life is good once again.

Monica, I have some limited experience with computers. I spent a ridiculous amount of time building my own, getting it to dual boot xp and linux (which I do most of my simulations on). Email me if you run into trouble, I might be of some use.

[Monica]

I don't think I'll be needing any help! The only problem I have at the moment is staying connected to MSN! Other than that, and a slightly defective mouse/keyboard, I'm good! My mother is a certified computer technician, and so my sister and I have learned quite a lot! I'm better with software where-as my sister might be better with hardware!

Lately though for us, just this past Sunday was the anniversary to the day that I received Casey 4 years ago, my G-ma's bday today, and finding 4 dogs (a mother, akita, and her three pups). We are just deciding if we want to keep them and foster them until they are adoptable or take them to a shelter....