The Pets

Yay! I got a comment! Cyrus requested an updated roster of the pets.

First we have the cats, Marshall and Calliope Rose (Callie), brother and sister that I first fostered at 4 weeks and then adopted. They are now about 9 or 10 years old. Marshall is a tuxedo cat and is the world's biggest pest. Callie is a very round calico.

Then there are the dogs: Rhona, named after my cleric, age 7, Raspberry, because she is so tiny, age 5-1/2, and Hermione Granger (do I really need to explain?), nearly 3. They are miniature smooth red dachshunds. Rhona is actually a tweenie, between miniature and standard size, and the other two are true minis. Raspberry and Hermione have both been to the game when they were babies.

Birds: we got lots of birds. In order of size, first there is Pedro the blue-and-gold macaw. He has quite a (clean) vocabulary which he uses quite often appropriately. He likes to tell the dogs to stop barking, asks them if they want to go outside and go potty, tells them "Bad Dog!" if they don't wait to go outside, asks "would you like some fresh water?", says bye-bye when I leave for work, tells me good morning when I wake up, etc.

Then there's Gina, the umbrella cockatoo (all white), who can say her name, Hello, and screams. Pedro sometimes tells her "Quiet, Gina!" Gina really likes Lynn, repeatedly telling her Hello when she comes over.

After that is Neal the Parrot, an Orange Wing Amazon, who does a remarkable impression of a bump on a log. Occasionally he makes noise but not very often. He loves peanuts.

Then we have Helios, the Sun Conure. He is beautiful and a total brat. You don't want to put your hand in his cage unless you have a peanut to give him. He can be very loud. In fact, one day someone was walking down the street on a hot day when I had my door open and she asked me if I had a conure. When I said yes, she said she thought so because she had one too.

In the office we have Sunny, the cockatiel, and Chachi, the dilute peach face lovebird. They are cute and make pleasant sounds.

In the bedroom are three zebra finches, two red-eared waxbill finches and one Black Hooded Nun finch. The finches are very quiet and busy, with little sounds.

Last, but not least, is Gloria the chicken who wandered into my yard and life about a month ago. She is a beautiful red hen, possibly a Rhode Island Red. She lives in a cage/pen combination in the backyard around the side of the house. She lays a brown egg about every other day or so. She is very nice and doesn't try to peck me.

I have no fishes, hamsters, bunny rabbits (anymore), lizards or other small mammals or reptiles. So it's not really a zoo. But I would love to have 1) a wallaby, 2) an emu, and 3) an alpaca. Realistically I might get a rabbit someday to live with the chicken, but probably not.

The First Entry

I didn't really plan to start a blog, but I wanted to comment to a really neat Blog called BART Musings, and it seemed like it was necessary to set up one of my own in order to do so. Hey, maybe nobody will read this, but it could be therapeutic.

So here I am. I'm a secretary for what I believe to be the best law firm in San Francisco, working with a great practice group. I live in the East Bay and commute by BART. I have one daughter who is going to Cal State University and is very smart. I'm a computer geek, having recently switched from PCs to Macs. I read scifi and fantasy, watch a LOT of TV, have many pets including a recently adopted chicken who showed up at my door. (How weird is that? Now I have fresh eggs!) I play Dungeons & Dragons with the same group of friends for the last 20 years. Some of us are planning to go see Superman this weekend except for one friend who can't wait until the weekend and MUST GO AS SOON AS IT OPENS. You know who you are.

The main reason I didn't start a blog sooner was because I don't really have much to say. So I may not post very often - only when something moves me to express my opinion. Or maybe just random thoughts. You never know!