Yeah, it's been a while.

In the meantime, I've gone to work four days and came home four days. And before each of those days and after each of those days, I've had to grab the squirming body of a highly indignant, squawking budgie and try to drop one drop of medicine in her eye.

How hard could it be? She's so small and I'm so big. Yes, that's the problem. I have to hold her firmly enough, but not so firm as to hurt her. She's as slick as an eel with shoulders like Schwartzenegger and in the time that I get the tiny medicine bottle flipped over (having taken the precautions to uncap it first) and squeeze it (it's a firm bottle and with the arthritis in my hand, awkward.), she either has flipped herself over or tightly clamped her eye shut. I have applied medicine to her head feathers, her ear, and her beak as well as her eye, so it's a mess on the right side of her head, even though I've tried to wash the feathers there.

Her other health signs hasn't changed much. She's still eating, drinking, checking out treats. And finally, for the first time in her life, she sits on my finger. She'll sit on it while I sit talking to her, and I can take her into the living room to talk to James or check out what's on the television, and she'll mostly sit without looking like she's thinking about flying (or flopping at this point, since her wings are clipped). It's sort of "Be careful what you wish for," because I've wished for this for years, but she's not doing it because it's friendly, just because she does. Because, you see, she's pissed at me. She won't play with her bell with me, won't eat oatmeal if I offer it to her, turns her back at me, won't chirp when I call her when I walk in the door. This morning she finally accepted some oatmeal and pecked at the bell when I rang it rather than snubbing me.

I wouldn't mind this at all if it looked like her eye was getting better. Wednesday I thought she had it a little wider open, and so did James. By the time I got home from work, the squint was back to where it was on Election Day and, of course, it looks worse because the feathers around it are dirty. I thought there might be

So I've been depressed most of the week. Not to mention work's been frustrating because I have been contacting vendors and not getting calls and e-mails back. I couldn't submit an order for signature because it's taken so long to get a form back. I hope it's there tomorrow. And right now I feel like crap. I have a sore throat so bad it's hard to swallow and another sinus headache that's so annoying I have to have a pad of Kleenex between my glasses and my nose to be able to do anything else but retreat into a dark room.

We did have a good time yesterday, though. In the morning it was Hair Day. "A good time was had by all," as always, even if the conversation did turn to Twinkies. <wry grin>

Next we made a last stop at the hobby shop. James will be working next weekend, unless he gets off early.

Finally we went home, took Willow out and made sure Schuyler was okay, then went to the Timegate gathering at the Elks Lodge. Next year is the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, and this was sort of a one-year "countdown" to the anniversary as well as a wind-up for next year's Timegate on Memorial Day weekend, which will feature a Doctor as a guest: Colin Baker will be attending!

We had fun, although the sound system was pretty bad and in most of the "panels" (this was held all in one big room) we could hardly hear the speakers. People talked about their favorite moments in the past fifty years, the Earth Station Who podcast people spoke, and several episodes were shown, including part four of a Colin Baker story and part three of "The Three Doctors," with one of my favorite Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart lines when he walks into the TARDIS for the first time: "So this is what you've been doing with UNIT funds!" LOL. They also served snacks and had a hot dog/hamburger supper with a killer salad on the side.

We stayed through the performance of the Ken Spivey Band, then gave our friend Sue a ride home rather than her having to take the bus—why would we leave a friend hanging out at a bus stop on a cold Saturday night? At home we had a nice chat with Jen, Mike, and Emma.

This morning we went grocery shopping, then went to Hallmark. They have a Linus to go with the "Peanuts" band from last year. James got the Star Trek ornament and I found a cute set of turkey salt and pepper shakers really cheap (having forgotten I already have similar pair; oh, well, one can never have too many Thanksgiving decorations). We also stopped at a new British shop in the same shopping center with Betsy's Hallmark (Merchants Walk) called "The Queen's Pantry." Bought a Scottish calendar for the guest room and James sampled some ginger beer.

On the way to "The Corner Shop," the British store in Marietta, we stopped at Book Nook. I usually don't buy Christmas books with recipes, but this was a book written by Ruth and Skitch Henderson (Skitch used to be Johnny Carson's bandleader) about their farm in Connecticut with lovely pictures of the snowy countryside and rustic decorations. I also got the third volume in Eric Wiggin's retelling of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, which is totally new except for the adaptations of two chapters from New Chronicles of Rebecca. It's more simply written, but I've always wanted it, and it was discounted. Also got a $3 DVD called A Scottish Christmas filmed at various Scottish sites.

Watched Lightmares tonight, a DIY production about two clueless pairs (a son and his mother, and two brothers) putting up Christmas lights, last night's Flipping Boston, and Thursday's Elementary. Waiting for Ken Burns' The Dust Bowl.

And now I'm going to take some ibuprofin because my throat's being a wretched bore.

Labels: birds, Christmas, Doctor Who, DVDs, friends, health, pets, shopping, television, work

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