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The Hummingbird Whisperer

It is no secret to my family and friends that I totally love birds. I have 4 birdfeeders scattered throughout our relatively small backyard that I am pretty good about keeping filled up (yes they are empty right now, but I swear I will fill them tomorrow...or maybe even this evening). On April 9th I looked out my kitchen window and saw a small bird in the middle of our grass. I assumed it was another bird that had flown into our glass wall (stupid, stupid idea the previous owners of this house thought was a home improvement). We have only lived here for 6 months and have already "buried" 4 dead birds who flew into it and fell to their death...one of them ended up impaled on our rose bush, (YUCK). But this one was still moving! So I ran out there to see if I could save it and, to my surprise, it was a hummingbird. I had never seen one sitting still before, they are always hovering and flitting and flying around. This one was trying, unsuccessfully to fly away, something was wrong with one of its wings.

At Jack's request, I let it be to see if it would "shake it off" and fly off on its own. But 15 minutes later I went outside and it was still scooting along the ground trying desperately to fly. So I did what any logical, bird loving person would do...I squatted down next to it and scooped my hands underneath it and picked it up. It didn't even try to fly away from me or anything, it was like it knew that I was trying to help it. It was amazing. I figured it was hungry because I didn't know how long it had actually been down there before I saw it, so I walked over to a flowering orange tree in our backyard that I always see hummingbirds feeding at and held it up to one of the flowers. Damned if it didn't start eating from the flowers!!! It ate like it was really hungry and it guided me around to keep on moving it from flower to flower by reaching its little head out toward the next flower it wanted to eat from. I felt like I should be in a Disney princess movie or something as I held my cupped hands holding this hummingbird up to the flowers to drink their nectar (think Snow White, Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella, who all had a special way with woodland creatures). By the way, did you know that hummingbirds have crazy long tongues?

I am obviously not equipped to rehabilitate an injured hummingbird, so wonderful Jack did some Googling and learned how to make an appropriate little box for it and what to prepare it to eat. We also learned that if those poor birds don't eat every 2 hours (for the juveniles) they will die. So it seems that picking it up and feeding it was 100% the right thing to do. After our little feathered patient was safely situated in her temporary home I called Yvette (my step-mom and a fellow bird lover) for some advice on our situation. She just happened to have a number on hand of a local Hummingbird Rescuer because this exact same thing happened to her last week. Seriously, I am not lying, how bizarre is that? So I made a couple of phone calls and a volunteer from a group called "Project Wildlife" met me a couple of hours later just down the street from my house. She examined it and told me that it is a juvenile, less than a year old! She had a bunch of ready made hummingbird transporter baskets and she took it from me to bring it to her home where she would rehab it and then release it back into the wild. How great is that?! I actually got to save a hummingbird.

You might be a crazy cat (and dog) lady if...

You write two page emails to your pet-sitter giving them instructions and information about your furry children.

Before I copy and paste said email into this blog in its entirety I need to give one short, but very important, disclaimer. When this new pet-sitter, who is a friend of ours and is my aunt's best friend, came over for her "orientation" walk-through I was not here. Though she has been to our house once before, she had never pet-sat for us before. I was off walking Buffy at the beach and didn't get back in time to be here to do the walk through with her. Jack did it on his own and when I asked him a bunch of questions about what he told her it seems that he left A LOT of very important points out of the walk-through (like where the cat box is...she was going to be staying at our house and watching the animals for 4 days...imagine the smell if she had not ever cleaned the cat box). Also, I had left for Texas on Tuesday morning and Jack did not come out until Thursday, so I wasn't available to have her come back over and do a walk-thru with me. So, I composed the following email on Wednesday night from Texas (brace yourself, it is kinda long):

Hi Dina,
I am so sorry that I missed you the other day. I am usually the one who gives the "pet care tours" of our house, so I thought I would help my wonderful husband out by supplementing the tour he gave you with this note since when I quizzed him about what he told you it seems he left a few important things out (like introducing you to Spike!). First of all, THANK YOU so much for staying at our house and taking care of our babies. Spike and Buffy are our 4-legged, furry little kids and I am so glad that they will be in capable hands while we are away. Since I can't entirely remember what Jack said he went over with you I am just going to cover everything I can think of and sorry if I tell you stuff that Jack already did. You can use this as notes in case you forget anything.

First the important stuff! Our pets love to be loved! Spike loves to be picked up and held against your shoulder and kissed on the head and petted. He is so super sweet and he loves hugs. He is also a little sneak attacker sometimes so you do sort of have to be aware around him. If he lays on his back and coos at you with all 4 paws in the air, this is only an invitation to pet his stomach if you want your arm attacked. With a normal cat this would be fun play, but with Spike it is only fun if you are wearing hawk gloves or 3 sweatshirts to protect your arms. He doesn't mean any harm, but he doesn't know his own jaw strength (he has no front claws, only back ones, so it is mostly teeth you have to worry about). Really, he is usually very very sweet, but I always like to give a disclaimer to just be aware around him, his mom was a completely feral cat and I think some of the instinct is still alive and well deep inside him. Buffy is the sweetest, happiest dog on the planet. She loves to be around you and she loves to be scratched on the chest. When you pet her head and she lifts it up she is not trying to lick or bite you, she is trying to redirect your hand to pet her chest instead of her head. She is a girl who just knows what she wants and works to get it. Do not say the word "Walk" unless you intend to at the very least go up to Bunny park with her (middle of our street) because as soon as you ask her if she wants to go on a walk she will start doing little dog pirouettes and get super excited. She is a dog who is pretty sure she is not a dog but a person. She will occasionally choose to spend time in the backyard by herself watching birds and barking at gardeners, but usually she wants to be where the people are. She is allowed on the furniture so it is ok if she gets up on the couch with you. We actually selected a fairly sturdy couch based on specifically it being able to handle her (how is that for planning your world around your pets?!). Buffy doesn't like her paws being touched much, so if you notice her being sensitive about her paws that is perfectly normal for her. She will shake though (but only with her right paw, she doesn't know how to do a left shake), that is a trick she knows and is proud to show off...for a treat of course!

Hiding places/sleeping:
Spike has many hiding places around the house: dining room chairs, the basket of blankets under the end table in the family room, the baskets in the master closet (they are full of my clothes..and cat fur), on either guest bed (and under the comforter on the bed in the room you are sleeping in), and he also loves sleeping on just about every piece of furniture in the house. He does not usually sleep on the bed with us at night (but not because he is not invited, he just doesn't for some reason), he usually prowls around the house and sleeps down on the couch in the family room or living room. He loves to lay on your lap while you are sitting watching tv in the evenings and be pet. Hopefully you will get to experience this, it is one of his favorite times for cuddles. Buffy loves laying on the couch in the family room, on the rug in front of the back door (to keep an eye on things and catch some rays), on the floor in the hallway outside the office, and on the floor in our bedroom. In the evenings she very much likes to be up on the couch with you, so if she is pushing around and looking at you and looking awkward, it is because she either doesn't think there is sufficient room and she wants you to make room or she doesn't know if she is invited and she wants you to invite her up to the couch. At night she will usually sleep at the very back of the walk in closet in our master bedroom. We figured out that she has claimed that space as her dark cave at night. It is pretty funny. She may choose to sleep in the guest room with you at some point and she may even jump up on the bed (if you are comfortable with that). She actually spent a night in there with Mel and Keith when they were visiting (and we were home and in our room!!!). She has a very special relationship with them! :)

Poop:
...ok, this is just details about Buffy's pooping habits and how to clean out Spike's litter box and is pretty boring, so I skipped it for the blog...

Food:
Buffy's food is in a tall container (I am sure Jack showed you and he will probably have it marked) and she gets one scoop in the morning and one in the evening. If you have trouble finishing a meal, she will usually be more than willing to help you out with that also :). Her food and water bowls are the big ones on the iron stand right next to the kitchen "pass through" counter. Spike's food situation is a bit more complicated than Buffy's. If he starts being really obnoxious and howling and knocking water glasses off of nightstands (I highly recommend taking a water bottle with a lid to bed rather than an open glass for this reason) around 5am it is because he is telling you it is time for you to get your lazy ass out of bed and feed him what we affectionatly refer to as "First breakfast". This consists of one scoop of dry food in our master bathroom. The food is on the counter in a cute little container and he has a food and water bowl on the floor in there as well. You can do this and then stumble back to bed knowing that the beast will be sated for a little while at least. Then, when you get up at a more decent, human hour, he will remind you again that it is time for "second breakfast", this consists of one scoop of food from his dry food container down in the kitchen. His food bowls are located near the window in the breakfast nook. Don't worry, he won't usually start bothering you for 2nd breakfast until you actually come downstairs, or are very close to doing that. And you can feed Buffy breakfast at the same time as you feed Spike 2nd breakfast (she is so much lower maintenance when it comes to food!) Then, for dinner, please feed him some of his wet food. I usually give him approx 1/3 of a can or so of his wet food (Jack should leave it out, but if not, it is in the bottom shelf of the pantry. Both of them eat dinner in the kitchen at their bowls. Right before bed they also both get treats. There are cat treats and dog treats in our bathroom either on the counter or in the cabinet just to the left of the left hand sink (in the cabinet next to the vanity area). One treat for Buffy (they are pretty big) in the master bedroom and a good shake of treats for spike from the treat container on the bathroom floor (can't remember what brand they are). Buffy also has lots of those little chew bone things in the bottom of the pantry, feel free to give her one of those now and then. She will take it and go sit at the back door and wait for you to let her out to go eat it. It is pretty funny :)

OK, I am very tired (it is later here than there) and I think I have covered everything. If you have any questions at all please don't hesitate to call either Jack or me on our cell phones. My number is x, Jack's is x. Thanks again and we'll see you soon! Ali

Rock Star Techno-Genius, I am

Yes, you heard me right, I am SUCH the Rock-star Techno-genius. Today, the ad agency I work for was working on an RFP for a very large account that we are hoping to get. We needed some old TV spots that I produced for Sea World back when I worked at GSD&M to include as advertising samples from our team. Well, the only way I have those tv commercials is on old-school VHS tapes (I bet a lot of you don't even have a VCR in your house anymore, do you?). So, about a year and a half ago, I ordered a DVD Recorder/VHS combo machine because I wanted to convert all of our old family movies from VHS to DVD. Today I took it out of its UPS packaging (yes I had never even removed the UPS bag from around it!) and took it upstairs and hooked it up to the tv in one of our guestrooms. It only took me about 5 hours and about 10 DVD-R's but I figured out how to use it. And I am proud to say that I successfully created a dvd with 6 spots on it, all as their own title/file. Then I copied them to my computer, figured out how to convert them from VOD files (the file type that they are when they are recorded from VHS to DVD) to mpg files (the file type you need to have them as in order to do anything with them on a computer). THEN I uploaded them all to Flikr so that my co-workers in Austin, Texas could then download them and put them on our reel for our presentation! To some of you this may not sound very impressive, but it was a completely new thing for me and I learned it myself from scratch and am quite excited about it. Now I just need to use this newfound skill to get those old family movies over to DVD!

Random day-to-day crap

Well, I suck, it has been forever since I added anything to my blog. Either my life hasn't been exciting enough for me to write anything, my life has been too exciting and I haven't had time, or I just don't know how to do this correctly and how to judge what should and should not be blogged about. I am going with option #3.

I have decided (yesterday) that I am going to commit to 2-a-days....workouts I mean. I was inspired by my new twitter bff Ashton Kutcher to do that because he said he is doing that to get ready for having to be shot shirtless in an upcoming film. Of course Ashton Kutcher doesn't have to work 40 hours a week for an advertising agency and he has loads of time to work out, but nevermind that...if he can do it, I can do it! So, yesteday I did my Malibu Pilates in the morning and walked Buffy in the evening. Today I have sat on my ass in front of my computer all day and done absolutely nothing in the way of exercise. It is currently 4:03pm, which means I have to find a way to get my 2 workouts in sometime between right now and when I go to bed. Unless sleeping counts as working out (oh I WISH it did!). I am also journaling my progress in this handy little daily calendar I bought at Staples. I love my lists! I am recording if I exercised, what my weight is, if I took my vitamins, etc. It is sort of my accountability for the day. I got it on March 3rd and filled it in every day for about 6-days and then forgot about it for a week and now I am back to it. I am backfilling in yesterday because I want credit for my 2 workouts yestreday, dammit! Then I am going to fill in my category spaces for the rest of the month so all I have to write is yes and no on any given day, that is not too difficult, I should be able to handle that (one would hope).

Jack is making us yummy steak and asparagus for dinner tonight, sounds good! Kinda like a date at home, you gotta love it. Maybe there will be a pretty sunset to go with it. There has been a lot of marine layer lately which has made for some pretty unimpressive sunsets. OK, I guess I better stop blogging so that I can go and do at least one of my two workouts that I need to get in today, ugh. I am going to try to start blogging more often though so I get in the habit of doing this. I can't promise that it won't be mundane every day crap like this one because, really, this is my life. I am not like a Rock star or a famous movie star or something glamourous like that so what do you want? I usually sit in front of my computer and work for 8-10 hours a day and then I eat dinner and watch TV...not too exciting. But hopefully I will be able to find some fun, interesting random things to write about and that is what I will blog about. Clearly (judging by this paragraph) I am VERY good at continuing to write lots of words even though I have ABSOLUTELY nothing at all to say. So, there you go. OK, really going to go work out now...really....seriously....ok bye....now, really bye.....c-ya.....really this time, bye.

Cake Mania and my Job

I got this fabulous, wonderful yet completely evil Christmas gift from my sister this year. It is a computer game titled "Cake Mania". She called it a "time management" game, oh doesn't that sound fun? That is something I endure daily trying to manage all of the various crap I have to juggle at work. Why on earth would I want to try to do that in my down time? Seriously? Well, since it was a gift and she raved about how "fun" it was I figured I'd load it onto my computer and give it a go.

Good Lord, I have discovered a new way to spell addiction...C-A-K-E-M-A-N-I-A. Turns out I was quite wrong in my initial assumption of these games. So wrong in fact that I beat both versions of Cake Mania on the CD she gave me and wanted more. So I found Cake Mania 2 online and downloaded it for the reasonable price of $6.99. The way the game works is, you are a lady who owns a bakery and all these really random customers come in (think old ladies, annoying kids, Dracula, Santa Claus, Cupid, and old guys with stubble dressed as the Easter Bunny) and order cakes in various combinations of shapes, frosting and decorations. You make money by filling their orders before their patience runs out and they bail (no pressure). Then, with the money you make, you can pimp out your bakery with better faster ovens, additional decorations, faster shoes, etc. It can get quite fast paced and mad and you have to seriously keep track of so many different things going on at the same time, it is nuts. And it is completely addicting.

This game completely sucks you in too, you can't look at anything else, you can't talk to anyone, you don't hear anything (really selling you on it, aren't I, HA!). Let me tell you a sad story to illustrate what I mean. One evening Jack and I were sitting in our office, he was doing some work or something on his comptuer and I was playing Cake Mania at mine. We were also making dinner and it was time to put the veggies in. He said, "I'll go do it", and I said OK. Then, a second later I heard a beep in the kitchen and I looked over at him and asked, are you going to go put the veggies in? He looked at me, dumbfounded, and said, I got up and did that like 8 minutes ago, that was them beeping that they are done. To fully appreciate how completely ridiculous it is that I did not even notice him get up, leave the room, come back and the passing of 8 minutes, you should know that we have a desk that has a chair on each side, facing each other and it is only about 2.5 feet across. So he is literally in my face when he is in here working and I didn't notice him get up and leave. Pitiful isn't it?

So, if you have read the title of this entry you are probably wondering what the heck this has to do with my job. Here is where it gets really funny. At first, when I was working I was wishing I was playing this stupid game (seriously I was starting to get worried that I was going to turn into one of those people who disappeared into a virtual world and completely lost touch with reality and the outside world). But, then, it evolved and I started to see my work tasks in more of a "cake mania" perspective (so maybe that is actually happening, huh?). All of the millions of things I had to get done and emails I had to respond to and items I owed my clients became thought bubbles over random characters demanding to be served their "cake" and I just started jamming through things to "fill the orders". So, in a very sick and twisted way, Cake Mania has made me better at my job. OK, send the people in the white truck to lock me up now, I surrender.

Misc. Musings

So, we took Buffy for a walk on the Beach for sunset on Friday and we may have gone a little overboard. When we got home Buffy could barely get up off the floor and she limped upstairs and put herself to bed about 2 hours before we were ready to go to bed (and it wasn't like we went to bed late, we are total losers and don't stay up too late anymore, which means she went to bed TOTALLY early). Then she moved pretty slowly all day on Saturday too. Also, I am currently barely able to walk. Every time I stand up after sitting down for more than a 5-minute period my calves are so tight and in so much pain that I almost just fall right over. It would make me quite happy if they stopped hurting so much tomorrow. I have no idea how far we walked. The "Dog beach" part of Coronado (the portion of the beach where the dogs are allowed to be leash free and therefore able to tear after seagulls at 100 mph) doesn't have mile-markers or anything, but we walked the length of it about 8 or 10 times. I think Jack clocked about 7,000 steps on his pedometer so I'd say we went a little over 3 miles (possibly more, this is definitely not an exact science). By the way, regarding the seagull chasing, Buffy will never learn that she has no hope whatsoever of actually catching a seagull, but that's ok because it sure is fun to watch her try.

Also, on a totally unrelated topic, we took down Christmas yesterday. What, you think January 18th is a little long to leave a Christmas tree and ALL of your decorations up? Really? Yeah, maybe you're right, but the sad thing is, this year we actually got it down earlier than we did last year. It is so much fun and so festive when you put it up, it is a big celebration. You put on Christmas music and maybe make yummy Christmas themed drinks (peppermint patty anyone?) and it is just a joy. But taking them down is straight up a C-H-O-R-E, and not a fun one either. You gotta drag all those boxes in from the garage and figure out how the Hell you got it all to fit last year because it is quite clear that you either need to get rid of a few decorations or buy a couple more boxes if there is any way it is going to fit (it is like the opposite of the dryer eating socks...the Christmas decorations somehow multiply over the season while you have them displayed). Then, once they are all down, all the parts of the house where they had been placed look eerily empty and strange. You wonder how you never noticed how empty that corner where the Christmas tree lived looked before December.

OK, I am going to go work on inviting more people to read my Blog because Mel has invited about 100 more people to read hers than I have to read mine so I am way behind the ball on that. I'll try to post again soon (if I get more readers I will definitely post again soon). Cheers!

"Happy New Year"

So, as I was leaving a parking garage the other day and I wished the parking attendant a "Happy New Year" it occured to me, why do we say that? I mean it isn't as if some massively different thing happens at midnight on December 31st (other than most of the country being rip-roaring drunk and a very expensive crystal ball sliding down a pole). I mean, why "Happy New Year". I will acknowledge that it is a nice sentiment to wish people. But, then, why do we limit it to just the new year. On February 1st, why don't we wish people "Happy New Month"? And, on Mondays, why don't we wish people "Happy New Week"? Why does the sentiment of a happy new time period only apply to years? I think we should all wish everyone a Happy New Month starting at the beginning of every month this year and see if it catches on. Who's game?