Belly Shirt and Hot Pants? Not the Way to Go.

As of 6:45 this evening, I will have completed my first week of classes. All is well. I am certain I made the right decision to go back to school. However, I will just say that graduate school is a lot of work.

It could be that I am taking it too seriously. It could also be that I am not. So, I think I will continue to devote my entire days to my studies. Baroque art...fun. Literary criticism...we actually dissected Little Red Riding Hood in class. Greek Tragedy in Tranlsation? Oy vey. I spent 2 hours today taking notes on the introduction to Enuma Elish (the ancient Greek version of the creation of the universe). It only took me an hour to read it then. Hopefully, the other translations will be more straightforward. Kicking my A. Today, anyway.

So that's it. That's my life. I am looking forward to the long weekend. Oh, next week will be a test. I plan to add cooking dinner to my daily schedule. We will have to see how that goes.

Back to School

Well, in just three short hours, I will be back in class...for the first time in more than a decade. I am excited, anxious, enthusiastic, and (pardon the expression) scared shitless. For real. I cannot poo. I know. TMI.

What do we think the kids are wearing to class these days? Do we think it is still hot pants and a belly shirt like it was in my day? Okay, that was my tribute to Jack McFarland. Let's face it. I steal most of my good lines from somewhere. My guess is I will be sporting shorts and a polo shirt of some sort.

So, today I start the study of Baroque Art. Tomorrow, I have Greek Tragedy in Translation and Literary Criticism. In the meantime, I am entertaining myself with a rerun of Dharma and Greg. I wonder what happened to them.

Well, I guess I should go change out of my belly shirt and hot pants and get ready for class. I don't know why, but that makes me laugh.

So Far, So Good

Here he is! We are still obsessed with little Loco Ono.

Where Have You Been?

Okay, a better question might be "Where have I been?" I have not taken my retirement too seriously and extended it to the blog. I was not eaten by Loco...or Lulu...or Fargo...or any of the other beasts in our menagerie. Shlomo and I took a little trip through New England until yesterday.

We started in NYC where we saw Hair in Central Park. Loved it! We then went through the Berkshires to Williamstown, Mass to the theatre festival there. So damn good. Then, we sauntered up through Vermont and New Hampshire on our way to Cape Cod. We had a great time. We ate some great food. We saw some very large whales. We bought some art.

Now I am back. But, I will be honest. Mama Streisand is coming to visit, so I will probably be blogging sporadically until school starts on the 25th. Then, it should pick up again. I will need something to do to aid my procrastination. Let's not kid ourselves. Procrastination will happen. If you knew me then, remember how clean my apartment was in college. That was procrastination, my friends. P-R-O-C-R-A-S-T-I-N-A-T-I-O-N.

So I am off to face the unpacking and laundry that I did not do today. And, I have some shipments to track. Oh yeah, Slomo and I were totally out of control with our purchases. So, keep checking back. I will eventually get in my semi-regular routine of posting again.

Three More Days...

All I can say is that this week has got to be the longest of my life. The minutes seem like hours. The days seem like decades. Seriously, it has got to end soon. It's kind of like this....

Tick.














Tock.
















Tick.




















Tock.

It should be like this: Tick. Tock. Note the lack of time between them.

I should also point out that I have pretty much abandoned my reading list for 2008. In just a month, I will have reading lists given to me. That has to be my focus. But, I honestly cannot wait for that. I am such a loser.

Oh, and why do I not believe that Ryan Seacrest was really bitten by a shark? I think he was sipping from Paula Abdul's soda can if you know what I am saying... Sad, that Seacrest is all I have to entertain myself with today.

I will confess this, though. I have been totally sucked into to Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood. Oy vey!

Loco for Loco

So the weekend...yeah...nothing that exciting. Temple on Friday night, dinner with friends on Saturday, dinner with a couple of the kids on Sunday...I promise we did more than eat. Here's a quick recap:

Aside from some half-assed attempts at household chores, the weekend pretty much consisted of watching Loco.

• "Oh, look he's eating a piece of broccoli."
• "Wow! He is going to town on that baby carrot!"
• "Ooh...he's hanging upside down!"
• "Hey! He just pooed on me!" Yeah. That one got a little old.

So, if we weren't obsessively holding him, playing with him, or watching him, we were shopping for him. Let me just say, parrots ain't cheap. Carrier: check! Toys: check! Feet toys for bottom of cage: check! Books (for us to read about him): check! Pinata: Check (Seriously...filled with bird treats and it's not even his birthday)!

Yeah! We are total nerds where little Loco Ono is concerned. By the way, Shlomo does not like that nickname. Everyone else (namely me!) does.

One last litte Loco Ono story and then I will stop for a while. On Sunday morning, Shlomo went to the Hot Bagel Shop around the corner to pick up our breakfast. I was doing my part to get ready at home. Okay, I was fixing myself a coke (don't judge) and putting plates and napkins on the table. Loco was on his perch downstairs. The dogs were in their crates (so as to prevent the begging).

So, I am fixing the coke, which evidently takes longer to tell about than do. All of a sudden, I hear Fargo barking like crazy in her crate. It's really unlike her. I go into the living room to see what is the matter. There is Loco off his perch and walking across the floor. Fargo evidently deemed herself to be the hall monitor. I thought she hated the bird. I prefer to tell myself that she was looking out for Loco's safety and not trying to get him in trouble. It was probably the latter.

Well, that's the big excitement of the weekend. I will get into the wireless printer installation, or lack thereof, later. Now, I am off to go watch Loco eat some Cheerios. Does it get any more fun than that?

What's One More?

First of all, the name is Loco. That’s right…Loco it is, because Loco we are. But, I have to say that if all nights with little Loco the parrot are like the first night, we are going to be just fine. He is relatively quiet. I view this as a good sign. It is better he get quiet when stressed rather than start squawking. There have been a few chirps/squawks, but they are really not bad.

Not that this blog is turning in the The Parrot Diaries, but here were some of the adventures of the first night. Oh, and ignore the extra bullet points. Slight problem with blogger.com. Oy vey!

• Large birdcages are hard to move up the stairs. If you are doing so, make sure you are the one ahead of/above the birdcage. It hurts when they fall on your face. You are talking to someone who learned this lesson the hard way. And, I like to think Shlomo is the one who is not smart. He got me there. But, at least there are no bruises or permanent imprint of the bars of the cage. (Note to Shlomo: when we are halfway up the stairs carrying some heavy object and we have been working 10 minutes to get to that point, there is no need to say, “You’re gonna have to help me now.” Yeah, I was helping…a lot. I was not picking daisies. Everytime you paused, all the weight fell on me.)
• Creepy bird store…while creepy…is actually pretty good. They have a much better selection of most things for birds than your typical Petco/Petsmart. Again, lesson learned the hard way as we visited two Petcos and a Petsmart before finding the perch stand we wanted.
• If you are going to a salad bar at the grocery store to get some chopped fresh fruit and vegetables for your new parrot, make sure the grocery store has a salad bar before you go. We finally found some prepackaged broccoli florets and baby carrots mix. I guess it will do.
• Bird toys ain’t cheap. No need to expand on that.
• Don’t joke with your hairdresser that the day after your last day of work you want to bleach your hair white with one electic blue streak. I kind of think she viewed it as a “Challenge Extended” proposition. Yes, I always wanted blue hair as a kid, but I don’t think I have the courage to pull it off. I know that is not related to Loco, but it did happen last night.

So, I guess I am now one step closer to my dream of riding around on a Segway with my parrot perched on my shoulder. Now, all I need is the Segway and to teach Loco to perch on my shoulder. He is fine with the finger, but still skittish on the shoulder. He will get used to it.