Domestic Geek

A long time ago, waaaaay back before I even had a blog, a coworker at the place of pizza employment was going through a divorce and had to get rid of his birds. I was told they were parakeets, so I agreed to take them in. Well, imagine my surprise that one of them was not a parakeet at all. After a bit of research, it turned out that one of them was a Peach-faced Lovebird — not only an expensive bird, but one that has quite a long life span. Marcus named it Kane after a popular WWF wrestler at the time that wore a red leather face mask (we later learned it was a girl when she laid eggs, but the name stuck). She's been in the original cage that I was given when I got her. Marcus and I both felt it was a little small for her, it was a pain in the butt to clean and the plastic bottom was actually cracked. We had planned on getting a new one, but circumstances and finances had never aligned right for us to get her a new home.

Now, I need to mention before I continue this story that I used to be quite the garbage queen, especially back in my pizza delivery days. Many a day I would come home with "treasure" that I had found in someone's trash and it would drive Marcus crazy, especially when it would sit around being more clutter. I promised him a few years ago that I would quit bringing home other people's trash.

About a month ago we were coming home from the store and as we turned the corner onto our street, there, perched upon the stuffed Hefty bags, sat a huge bird cage. I excitedly asked Marcus to pull over so I could get it. He said I wasn't going to take it and I begged for him to please stop the car. He gave in, and even though it was raining pretty steady, I got out and snagged it.

As per my procrastinating ways, it took a couple of weeks before I got around to cleaning it up (it was rather filthy from a parrot or something) and got it ready for her. It was missing the seed and water cups, so I found a suitable water dish and a couple of new wooden bars. While I was out getting those, I saw the same cage at PetSmart retailing for $119 (though the model originally came with a stand). Score! I was feeling quite happy that I had snagged it for free! Well, we got her all moved in and it took a few days for her to get accustomed to the new digs, but she seems quite happy now and her old cage has since ended up in the dumpster.

I couldn't believe that someone would just throw a cage they had obviously invested such a chunk of cash in, but I am so glad that they did.

I've decided to participate in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). All you have to do is post (a quality post) every day during the month of November — just the incentive I need to get out of my blogging slump.

In addition to being a cool month-long project, the NaBloPoMo site also has some great social networking functionality. I'm really looking forward to finding some new reads, especially since my friend Laura started a Colorado Bloggers group there. I love reading about areas I'm familiar with from other people's points of view.

D'oh! It's helpful when you make a post to show up on Halloween that you actually make it public.

Halloween was uneventful here. I thought about getting candy to pass out, but $2.79 for a bag with about 12 fun-size candy bars in it? No freaking way. Remember when bags of candy were actually full? I've only given out candy once since we lived in this park (the first year we moved in), and I think I only got 5 Trick or Treaters. Good thing I decided against the candy, because not one single person knocked on my door this year. The last thing I need to waste my money on is a bunch of candy that I don't need sitting around going stale, or worse, being eaten by me.

I carved my pumpkins and only cut myself once. Nothing to match my cool Jobs-O-Lantern from last year, but hey, I wasn't working full time last year, either. I made a Linux Tux one that unfortunately won't last long due to some wrong cuts I made and an extremely stringy pumpkin. I'll post a link to pictures later this evening. Here's a link to photos of this year's Jack-O-Lanterns.


I never got my cookies made. The milk for the frosting was bad and I didn't feel like going back out to get some. I might make them this evening, though, and take them in for a Friday treat at work. I'm roasting my seeds tonight, too.

Hope everyone out there reading had a fun and safe Halloween!

OK, I can understand someone's enthusiasm about the upcoming Christmas holiday, but seriously...who the hell puts their outdoor decorations up the day before Halloween? My neighbor, that's who. Snowmen, reindeer and fake trees is what greeted me when I turned off the main street into our park today. Not cool, people.

I did go to the U-Pick-Um pumpkin farm yesterday after work at Rock Creek Farm. It's up at Hwy 287 and the Northwest Parkway up in Brighton. It was quite the drive up there during rush hour, but I really enjoyed the drive to the field once on the property and roaming through the fields. I took Northwest Parkway/E-470 home, so it actually wasn't too bad on the trek home. There is another one close to that same spot that I'd like to check out next year called Pumpkins and More Farms. Marcus promised me that next year we could go through a corn maze or something. I've always wanted to do that. In addition to some pumpkins that I got to make Jack-o-lanterns out of, I got three small pie pumpkins to make fresh pies for Thanksgiving. They even threw in a spice pack and a recipe.

For future reference, there is a great site I came across called Pumpkin Patches and More! that listed pumpkin patches, corn mazes and other Halloween-related activities by state. There is also information about finding produce, Christmas trees and all sorts of stuff. That's a great resource (it's where I found the two places I mentioned above, plus a tutorial on making fresh pumpkin pies)! Wish I had thought if it.

OK, I'm off the make some pumpkin cookies to take to work tomorrow. I found the recipe online and if they come out yummy, I'll post a link to it. Otherwise, I'm going to forget they exist! I also am going to clean out my pumpkins so they'll be ready to carve after work tomorrow and get the seeds soaking so I can roast them. Roasted pumpkin seeds is my most favorite fall food. Mmmmm...yummy!

Even though Marcus and I are not "officially" married, we celebrate the anniversary of when we became a committed couple every 28th of October.

Today marked 15 years of togetherness.

I can honestly say I love him more today that I did 15 years ago. I'm the most blessed person in the entire world that I found him. I truly believe we are soul mates.

We celebrated this evening by consuming our traditional meal of Endless Shrimp at Red Lobster (the promotion always seems to be going on at the end of October). The cool thing about this year is we paid via gift cards that I got at work. I was just doing something that I felt was part of my job, but the CSR really appreciated my work and felt that I went above and beyond, so he requested to the powers that be that I was given this extra compensation. Yay!!! Works for me and the timing couldn't have been better.

There was a cute elderly couple sitting across the aisle from us. I was "enamored" with them (as Marcus called it). I so want to be like that couple when we're old. You could just tell that they enjoyed each other's company.

Anyway...