Shame shame shame, no posts since FEBRUARY! We're (I'm) awful. Let's remedy it.
Sue and Will are in town this weekend! This morning was Breakfast with the Birds at the Aviary and naturally I was working but Andrew, Sue, Will, Lois, Mel, Deloris and two of our nephews, Jake and D, came. Having the opportunity to share my work with my family was a really wonderful experience, almost surprisingly so. I talk about work all the time, but to actually be able to SHOW them where I spend my time and moreover show them what I do was a really tender, great kind of moment for me.
Sue, Will, Lois, Andrew and I all did lunch at Whole Foods while my side of the family returned home for Griffin's first birthday party, which I sadly couldn't attend because work was CRAZY. I pulled a great 12 hour shift (I guess 11 hours, subtracting the hour lunch I too), from 7:45-8:00pm. After lunch I went to the Venture Outdoors Festival and did a presentation with my exec. director, which ended up being hectic but fun (and I felt rather like a motivational speaker for most of the presentation...but I was motivating people to look at birds? I guess that's a good goal), came back and had a meeting with my manager and then did an eagle court program.
As expected, I'm bushed. In the bushiest way possible. Lots of tiny, pokey branches and little leaves and berries.
Generally, life is great--Andrew is at the U doing his bio stuff and he's rocking chemistry's socks (bet you didn't know it had socks, huh?). It's exciting seeing him get so excited about a field that he hasn't really studied before, but that's so well suited for him. Lucy is calming down and maturing a little bit. Linus isn't barking at every stranger he sees and Roman is playing with the dogs. Somehow we're all maturing and moving into life being a little easier, it seems.
Here's to the rest of summer! I'll work on more than one post a season ;)
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Weather in Salt Lake has been really cold. It got down to (I think) well below -6 with the wind chill factored in last week and even though today felt like a warm day it was still a two-sweater-long-johns-under-pants-wear-gloves kind of day. I have this tiny little space heater in my office that I inherited and without it I think I'd just freeze at my desk! I sort of imagine it's a tiny little dragon-type monster breathing warm air on my feet. When it short circuits the incredibly old wiring of my plug and causes my computer to turn off, I then imagine that it's grumpy and tired. Oh the things we do to cope with both cold and obsolete electrical wiring.
Andrew is continuing to volunteer and is ramping up to start Biology classes at one of the local colleges this summer. He's learning a lot of neat things and one day he may or may not post about it (hmmmmm). I enjoy it when he tells me the back stories of the dogs he's working with at No Homeless Pets and how they are improving with time. Working for a non-profit organization myself, I'm well aware of how incredibly valuable volunteer time is and I can only imagine the kinds of impacts he's making for these animals.
The changes that have been happening at work may work out for the best. Today I was finally able to have a nice, long conversation with my new manager and I think I may be in love. You know, that kind of "All of the stress I have been experiencing for virtually no reason is dissipating because you are supportive of an emotionally healthy workplace in which I don't need to be afraid of losing my job at any moment" love that you so very rarely find.
There were a couple of other things I wanted to post about, but I'm suddenly terribly tired, so perhaps I will remember them tomorrow.
Andrew is continuing to volunteer and is ramping up to start Biology classes at one of the local colleges this summer. He's learning a lot of neat things and one day he may or may not post about it (hmmmmm). I enjoy it when he tells me the back stories of the dogs he's working with at No Homeless Pets and how they are improving with time. Working for a non-profit organization myself, I'm well aware of how incredibly valuable volunteer time is and I can only imagine the kinds of impacts he's making for these animals.
The changes that have been happening at work may work out for the best. Today I was finally able to have a nice, long conversation with my new manager and I think I may be in love. You know, that kind of "All of the stress I have been experiencing for virtually no reason is dissipating because you are supportive of an emotionally healthy workplace in which I don't need to be afraid of losing my job at any moment" love that you so very rarely find.
There were a couple of other things I wanted to post about, but I'm suddenly terribly tired, so perhaps I will remember them tomorrow.
Friday, January 21, 2011
More recent stuff
I'm terrible at blog promises, apparently. I still haven't posted wedding or Paris photos. Someday this will happen! I'll add to that list a handful of Thanksgiving photos and a small array of Christmas photos.
Until then, life continues on. This past Monday Linus gave us a terrible scare. Andrew made a delicious batch of rich, gooey dark chocolate brownies and we left them to cool while we dropped off a birthday present to a friend. Less than 20 minutes later, we returned to the apartment to find Linus nose deep in an upturned pan of brownies, half of them already in his stomach. Cue panic.
We've had incidents with chocolate before, but the amount of baking cocoa and dark chocolate in these brownies was astronomical by comparison. Poor Linus had to endure an attempt at making him throw up and when that didn't work, he was tossed into the car and rushed to the only 24-hour animal hospital we know about. I actually wasn't too worried about him because we've had chocolate scares before, but when the vets came out from the back room to give us a status update, his heart rate was at 280 (normal dog heart rates are 90-130 bpm) and we started to freak out a bit. In a most controlled manner.
Needless to say, he stayed overnight at the animal hospital. We ended up calling every hour and a half, much to the amusement of the very kind and supportive staff. By the next morning he was feeling much better, and by Tuesday night we took him home. Whew! Close call!
Andrew and I have also started volunteering with the Northern Utah Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic and Andrew is also volunteering with No More Homeless Pets Utah. Exciting!
Perhaps more to come later.
Until then, life continues on. This past Monday Linus gave us a terrible scare. Andrew made a delicious batch of rich, gooey dark chocolate brownies and we left them to cool while we dropped off a birthday present to a friend. Less than 20 minutes later, we returned to the apartment to find Linus nose deep in an upturned pan of brownies, half of them already in his stomach. Cue panic.
We've had incidents with chocolate before, but the amount of baking cocoa and dark chocolate in these brownies was astronomical by comparison. Poor Linus had to endure an attempt at making him throw up and when that didn't work, he was tossed into the car and rushed to the only 24-hour animal hospital we know about. I actually wasn't too worried about him because we've had chocolate scares before, but when the vets came out from the back room to give us a status update, his heart rate was at 280 (normal dog heart rates are 90-130 bpm) and we started to freak out a bit. In a most controlled manner.
Needless to say, he stayed overnight at the animal hospital. We ended up calling every hour and a half, much to the amusement of the very kind and supportive staff. By the next morning he was feeling much better, and by Tuesday night we took him home. Whew! Close call!
Andrew and I have also started volunteering with the Northern Utah Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic and Andrew is also volunteering with No More Homeless Pets Utah. Exciting!
Perhaps more to come later.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Twitter-er
My friend Kristine has gotten me into tweeting. I don't think that I use it entirely for the purpose it was intended...because I'm not entirely sure what that purpose is, but in any case, this is my Twitter account:
http://twitter.com/#!/parcheezycheezy
I mainly tweet about brief, inane things. I think I'm supposed to be sharing articles, items, events and things like that, but somehow I find it more interesting to post things that no one cares about? Sigh, I'll never be popular! ;)
http://twitter.com/#!/parcheezycheezy
I mainly tweet about brief, inane things. I think I'm supposed to be sharing articles, items, events and things like that, but somehow I find it more interesting to post things that no one cares about? Sigh, I'll never be popular! ;)
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Today, the red-tailed hawk
No turaco today, but I did handle our red-tailed hawk Storm.
I feel like Storm and I have had a brief but colorful relationship thus far. I see him but a tiny fraction of time in comparison to his trainers, so I am a short blip on his weekly radar. It's been nearly two months since I last handled him thanks to my hand surgery. When I radioed my training supervisor to ask if I could take him on a walk about the Aviary today, a small bubble of trepidation rose in my stomach-- he wouldn't most likely remember me, and there was a good chance that I might have forgotten some of my training.
This isn't a dangerous scenario. It's just, the second time I took him out of his mew I got footed and I feel (correctly, I believe) that it was because of my inexperience and because of a handling mistake. Footing is when raptors try to grab at something with a foot. That sounds so mild, so I'll clarify. Raptors hunt with their feet--their powerful, taloned feet--and when they attack something, they don't often attack with their beak because they have these overpowering death tools on the ends of their legs. Beaks are for eating, feet are for doing damage. I had been warned enough about footing that when it happened I reacted the way I should have and I wasn't at risk of real harm having been trained to handle it. It also wasn't a bad footing. But it was a shock and proved to me how well-practiced I need to be in my abilities.
My deeply-buried concern was that I would be footed today, justifiably, for being a dunderhead and forgetting the training I'd been working on during the several weeks prior to my hand injury. Because Kambo the turaco was being worked in the Mill, though, and I really needed to continue training with Storm, Storm it was.
Before I went into Storm's mew I practiced fiddling with the equiptment and forgot how to connect the jesses to the Ballerina (this is what I call the ball-bearing swivel I use to connect the jess extenders to the jesses, to subtly remind me to hang the smaller side down when I'm putting it on). I fumbled stupidly for five minutes until Kristine helped me review how to put it on. Outside the door of Storm's enclosure, I showed him both of my empty hands through the grate. See? Empty. He hunched low, surveying me with perfect vision. He flew at the grate and clung there for a moment, not aggressively but as if to get a closer look. No food. He flew back to his perch.
When I went into his mew with the Ballerina, jess extender and leather leash, my heart was pounding surprisingly against my ribs. I didn't expect to be physically nervous. Some tiny prey part of my mind was terrified of this beautiful bird, suppressed by the need of my higher consciousness to be calm and in control, hidden beneath a veneer of partially feigned confidence that I had no doubt he could see through. That's alright, it was more meant to convince myself.
It's not accurate to say that I was afraid. Fear is ineffective so I try not to bother with it. I was a bit jittery, though. Approaching Storm on his perch, I extended my glove to just under his fluffy breast and he placed one, then two feet on my glove. His talons flexed into the leather. Jess extender through the hole that is slightly too small to be easy in the jesses, fingers mildly aching as I massaged leather through leather, then the Ballerina through the extender and the leash through the Ballerina. Equiptment on.
Unsurprisingly, my hand was very weak today and shook slightly from the strain of pinching the jesses between my thumb and hand, middle finger and ring finger. Still, after not having handled him in months, I had a hawk on my glove and he looked very nearly comfortable.
I feel like Storm and I have had a brief but colorful relationship thus far. I see him but a tiny fraction of time in comparison to his trainers, so I am a short blip on his weekly radar. It's been nearly two months since I last handled him thanks to my hand surgery. When I radioed my training supervisor to ask if I could take him on a walk about the Aviary today, a small bubble of trepidation rose in my stomach-- he wouldn't most likely remember me, and there was a good chance that I might have forgotten some of my training.
This isn't a dangerous scenario. It's just, the second time I took him out of his mew I got footed and I feel (correctly, I believe) that it was because of my inexperience and because of a handling mistake. Footing is when raptors try to grab at something with a foot. That sounds so mild, so I'll clarify. Raptors hunt with their feet--their powerful, taloned feet--and when they attack something, they don't often attack with their beak because they have these overpowering death tools on the ends of their legs. Beaks are for eating, feet are for doing damage. I had been warned enough about footing that when it happened I reacted the way I should have and I wasn't at risk of real harm having been trained to handle it. It also wasn't a bad footing. But it was a shock and proved to me how well-practiced I need to be in my abilities.
My deeply-buried concern was that I would be footed today, justifiably, for being a dunderhead and forgetting the training I'd been working on during the several weeks prior to my hand injury. Because Kambo the turaco was being worked in the Mill, though, and I really needed to continue training with Storm, Storm it was.
Before I went into Storm's mew I practiced fiddling with the equiptment and forgot how to connect the jesses to the Ballerina (this is what I call the ball-bearing swivel I use to connect the jess extenders to the jesses, to subtly remind me to hang the smaller side down when I'm putting it on). I fumbled stupidly for five minutes until Kristine helped me review how to put it on. Outside the door of Storm's enclosure, I showed him both of my empty hands through the grate. See? Empty. He hunched low, surveying me with perfect vision. He flew at the grate and clung there for a moment, not aggressively but as if to get a closer look. No food. He flew back to his perch.
When I went into his mew with the Ballerina, jess extender and leather leash, my heart was pounding surprisingly against my ribs. I didn't expect to be physically nervous. Some tiny prey part of my mind was terrified of this beautiful bird, suppressed by the need of my higher consciousness to be calm and in control, hidden beneath a veneer of partially feigned confidence that I had no doubt he could see through. That's alright, it was more meant to convince myself.
It's not accurate to say that I was afraid. Fear is ineffective so I try not to bother with it. I was a bit jittery, though. Approaching Storm on his perch, I extended my glove to just under his fluffy breast and he placed one, then two feet on my glove. His talons flexed into the leather. Jess extender through the hole that is slightly too small to be easy in the jesses, fingers mildly aching as I massaged leather through leather, then the Ballerina through the extender and the leash through the Ballerina. Equiptment on.
Unsurprisingly, my hand was very weak today and shook slightly from the strain of pinching the jesses between my thumb and hand, middle finger and ring finger. Still, after not having handled him in months, I had a hawk on my glove and he looked very nearly comfortable.
I am going to be working with our red-crested turaco, Kambo, today. Kristine and I are planning on taking him and our red-billed toucan, Inca, into the South American Pavilion and doing some short flights, with any luck! Otherwise, I'll be practicing putting on the equiptment of our red-tailed hawk, Storm.
This is Kambo and I:
This is Kambo and I:
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Green Aracari
Monday, December 20, 2010
New stuff
Now we need to get Andrew some new specs! Lucy discovered the joys of eating glasses. In a way, it was about time.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
My little helpers
Friday, December 10, 2010
Survived!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Pinned
Andrew has been working on homework all day and I have been tackling laundry and watching Taboo (I have no real excuse for watching sensationalistic television except that it is easy to watch) and Lucy spent a good portion of the afternoon happily pinned under Andrew's legs. She was less happy to get up.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Grunt in the snow
Friday, November 26, 2010
Thanksgiving!
On an unrelated note, I think both Andrew and I should get these bows for our Christmas ensembles:
And in case anyone is agonizing over Christmas presents, I have one suggestion...despite our tiny kitchen, Andrew and I are pretty enthusiastic amateur cooks. We didn't get a new cookware set for the wedding because we didn't need it, but our 11" and 9" non-stick pans have become incredibly scratched, so we've been admiring these babies, which are on sale:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/all-clad-d5-stainless-steel-french-skillet/?lineid=2&cm_src=E:COOKWARE-SETS
We have a William Sonoma gift card from the wedding, but it covers half the cost of them. And that's all the info I have on the matter.
So, to Rachel and Ben, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Feel better Amanda! It was great seeing some of the Layton family folks, and thank you for coming out, Sue and Will! To all the family we didn't get to see, we hope you had too much turkey just like us, to my family at home, we love you and thank you for the great evening, thanks to my mom for cooking her butt off and cooking one of the best Thanksgiving dinners ever, and to all of our friends, we hope you were with friends and family! Lastly, to all, we hope you know that we love you and miss you and that you are, as always, in our thoughts.
Happy Thanksgiving :) I may not eat for the entirety of the next year.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Some random updates:
Andrew keeps telling me not to treat it like it is anything special, but I like to celebrate accomplishments within reasonable bounds, so a mere mention within the blog should suffice. We've been slowly moving into new rituals to help keep the apartment cleaner, and lo and behold it's working! Having a clean, open living space is terribly comfortable. Who knew?
Last week Andrew had a huge presentation due and he totally rocked it. I'm really proud of him for all of the effort and dedication he is putting into school. Shout out to my man Andrew!
I have hand surgery tomorrow to reconstruct the nerve that I severed. I anticipate it will go smoothly and easily, though I'll have to wear a brace for about four weeks. After that, I have yet ANOTHER surgery scheduled to fix my sinus issues, which have made living across the smoggy Wasatch Front difficult for most of my life, and I for one am really excited to get it all fixed. After this, no more surgeries. Hopefully ever.
Lucy now goes to her crate consistently with the command "Kennel", and most of the time with "K-town". That battle is almost won. She also gets spayed on December 3rd, and then she'll be pretty much all set in terms of her health needs.
Holidays are coming up! I'm excited for a break from work and the cold weather is rolling in as if on cue. I've appreciated the fairly warm fall we have had, but hopefully we'll still have a white Christmas.
Lastly, I'm handling a red-tailed hawk at work now. I have huge respect for all of our birds, but you really get a sense of what a deadly predator he is when he is three inches from your face and you have to trust the fact that he really wont take a big old bite out of you. I also got to sit right next to an emu and pet him for about 15 minutes, and similarly I was awed by what a powerful bird he is. Fear of animals is useless when you are handling them, but a healthy respect of them is an important part of building the relationship. Not surprisingly, fear and healthy respect feel sort of similar. It's taking my subconscious, primal mind a little while to figure out how to filter that and leave only the respect. Either way though, it's thrilling.
Photographic evidence:
Andrew keeps telling me not to treat it like it is anything special, but I like to celebrate accomplishments within reasonable bounds, so a mere mention within the blog should suffice. We've been slowly moving into new rituals to help keep the apartment cleaner, and lo and behold it's working! Having a clean, open living space is terribly comfortable. Who knew?
Last week Andrew had a huge presentation due and he totally rocked it. I'm really proud of him for all of the effort and dedication he is putting into school. Shout out to my man Andrew!
I have hand surgery tomorrow to reconstruct the nerve that I severed. I anticipate it will go smoothly and easily, though I'll have to wear a brace for about four weeks. After that, I have yet ANOTHER surgery scheduled to fix my sinus issues, which have made living across the smoggy Wasatch Front difficult for most of my life, and I for one am really excited to get it all fixed. After this, no more surgeries. Hopefully ever.
Lucy now goes to her crate consistently with the command "Kennel", and most of the time with "K-town". That battle is almost won. She also gets spayed on December 3rd, and then she'll be pretty much all set in terms of her health needs.
Holidays are coming up! I'm excited for a break from work and the cold weather is rolling in as if on cue. I've appreciated the fairly warm fall we have had, but hopefully we'll still have a white Christmas.
Lastly, I'm handling a red-tailed hawk at work now. I have huge respect for all of our birds, but you really get a sense of what a deadly predator he is when he is three inches from your face and you have to trust the fact that he really wont take a big old bite out of you. I also got to sit right next to an emu and pet him for about 15 minutes, and similarly I was awed by what a powerful bird he is. Fear of animals is useless when you are handling them, but a healthy respect of them is an important part of building the relationship. Not surprisingly, fear and healthy respect feel sort of similar. It's taking my subconscious, primal mind a little while to figure out how to filter that and leave only the respect. Either way though, it's thrilling.
Photographic evidence:
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Best meals of the week
We've been doing a bit of cooking over the past seven days! Here are my favorite three, in no particular order:
1. Pork loin in a whiskey cream sauce with pecans and almonds, served with garlic mashed potatoes
2.Breaded parsley pork loin medallions with white wine and broccoli
3. Tonight's vegetarian dinner, scratch-made spaghetti sauce with carrots and zucchini served over spaghetti squash, garlic bread, and baked apples stuffed with cinnamon oatmeal crumble and drizzled with vanilla sauce for dessert.
My meal qualifications have been that they need to be fairly cheap, incredibly simple and take as little time as possible between starting prep and eating. Number 1 took about 10 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to cook after the potatoes had been boiled, Number 2 took about 15 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to cook, and Number 3 took about 20 minutes to prep and an hour to cook everything, but the spaghetti squash, sauce and the baking apples all cooked together for that hour so it was just matter of waiting a bit.
In between these meals have been a lot of Mac n Cheez and hot dogs, so we're still keeping it real. ;)
1. Pork loin in a whiskey cream sauce with pecans and almonds, served with garlic mashed potatoes
2.Breaded parsley pork loin medallions with white wine and broccoli
3. Tonight's vegetarian dinner, scratch-made spaghetti sauce with carrots and zucchini served over spaghetti squash, garlic bread, and baked apples stuffed with cinnamon oatmeal crumble and drizzled with vanilla sauce for dessert.
My meal qualifications have been that they need to be fairly cheap, incredibly simple and take as little time as possible between starting prep and eating. Number 1 took about 10 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to cook after the potatoes had been boiled, Number 2 took about 15 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to cook, and Number 3 took about 20 minutes to prep and an hour to cook everything, but the spaghetti squash, sauce and the baking apples all cooked together for that hour so it was just matter of waiting a bit.
In between these meals have been a lot of Mac n Cheez and hot dogs, so we're still keeping it real. ;)
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