Remember my post a few days ago about the naughty birds? I determined I was entirely too quick to assume the birds did it. My aunt said maybe a squirrel did it, but I said, "No, I haven't seen a Charlie on my balcony all spring." For those of you new to my blog, Charlie is another name for any and all squirrels. Too long to go into now, besides I may have already explained this last year, so just nod your head and keep reading.

Saturday afternoon, I was sitting in the living room, next to the sliding glass door, watching tv. A movement caught my eye out on the balcony. I turned my head very slowly, and sure enough, there was a Charlie (squirrel) on my balcony, looking for all that seed he'd emptied from the bucket. When he couldn't find it, he decided he'd try getting it from the bird feeder instead. He jumped onto the railing, then leaped onto the top of the feeder.

I thought for sure there was no way he'd figure out how to lean over the side to get seed, the feeder almost isn't big enough for him to sit on, let alone lean over head first and feed.

He turned this way and that, reaching up to hold onto the cord used to hang the feeder on the hook, determined to find a way to get that seed!

Sideways didn't work too well. What will he try next?

There ya go! Use your back claws to grip the opposite edge, lean down head first and use your front feet to grab that seed and stuff your face.

It's even better if you twist your body around, so the silly humans watching you and taking stupid pictures will ooooh and aaaah at your acrobatics.

After being chased off the feeder, jumping to the bricks of the building, leaping to safety in the tree, then scurrying down to the ground, Charlie digs around in the droppings to see if there's anything good left to munch on.

My apologies to the birds for saying they were naughty. I jumped to conclusions without any hard facts. Since it appears Charlie is quite adept at getting seed from the feeder, it wouldn't surprise me if he was the culprit with the holey bucket. Bucket problem is fixed now too. I went to Home Depot on Saturday and adopted an orange round bucket alien that was willing to trade shelter for seed holding. He's an indoor bucket after all!

Because one just isn't enough.....

Supposedly, a second cougar was spotted earlier this week in the Chicago area. It was never found, and there have been no reports since of anyone seeing it. Searches were made by helicopter and foot over a forest preserve where it was see chasing deer. Here's a link to the story.

And it has also been determined the one previously shot and killed by Chicago police was in fact a wild animal that may have wandered here from the Black Hills in South Dakota.

I knew we could get a little wild here in Chicago, but this is going to extremes, lol.

Coming home after a hard day's work, I thought I'd sit and relax a bit before eating dinner and watching Survivor. But wait, I might need to fill the bird feeder outside. I'll check to see if it's empty. Yup, it's empty; before I sit down, I'll fill it so the birds have food tonight and tomorrow. After getting the step-stool from the bedroom, I open the sliding glass door, step outside and I discover I have naughty birds. Not naughty as in "they're having sex" but naughty as in, they chipped a hole in the plastic bucket I keep the birdseed in.

There's no way I'm going out tonight to Home Depot or Lowes to get another bucket, so I just taped up this one and brought it inside to keep my chippy birds away from the bucket. Not to be confused with Chipping Sparrows, which I also have.

Deena Hope
April 10, 1968 - April 16, 1998
I will always miss you in my life

Ahhhh, the warm weather is coming! It was about 62F today, and tomorrow it's supposed to be around 70F! I'm so excited! I so want to spend a little time outside in the sun, feeling and savoring the warmth.

I finally called to make a PT appointment today. My first appointment, for the consultation is April 23 at 6:45AM. It will last about an hour. Then I have two more appointments scheduled for April 29 (I think) and May 1, also at 6:45AM. It was very hard to try to make evening appointments as that's when everyone else wants them, so I figured early morning would have to do, and I can make up my lost time at work. Now my challenge will be getting up early enough to get to PT by 6:45AM! I might actually have to get up by 5:30AM now! *GASP*

Anybody looking for a unique gift to buy their loved one? I have the perfect item! It's on sale on e-bay, and there's no competition yet.

It's an eight foot tower of cars, on a spindle, and was featured in the movie Wayne's World. The Spindle, also known as the "Car Kabob" or the "Eight Car Pileup" is located in Berwyn, IL a suburb of Chicago. It was supposed to be dismantled last year to make way for a Walgreens (like there isn't one two blocks down?), but a couple of preservation groups formed to protest, and are trying to have it relocated.

How much would you pay for a rusted, bird poop covered, famous spindle of assorted cars? The full article and video are here.

This evening, a cougar or mountain lion, was shot and killed by Police in a Chicago neighborhood. Below are a couple pictures I took from the CBS website.




They don't know who the cat belonged to, they'll be searching it for tags, chips, or markings to track ownership. Cougar sitings in Chicago are rare.

Posting to let ya'll know I'm still alive. Not much has been going on here, just going to work and coming home. I still haven't called for the PT, I gotta try to get that done tomorrow. It seems every day I want to, but I get busy trying to take care of my customers, and before I know it the day's gone. It's been a cold weekend her, but it's supposed to warm up this week, up to almost 70F by Thursday. I can't wait! I'm really wanting some warmer weather.

Last week I bought three new cd's: P.O.D.' s new cd titled When Angels & Serpents Dance. Unless you're into heavy metal, you wouldn't like this, lol. I bought the new Counting Crows cd, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings. And, I bought a cd by a new country artist, James Otto, titled Sunset Man. It has his single "Just Got Started Loving You" on it, which I love! This week another new country artist, Lady Antebellum, has a cd coming out. Their first single is called "Love Don't Live Here" and it's another one I love. They harmonize well, reminding me of Little Big Town.

James Otto's MySpace page

Lady Antebellum's MySpace page

Following is a post covering a lot of different topics, things that I've mentioned or discussed with various people over the last few weeks.

First, I finally spoke to my doctor's nurse last Thursday. I asked about the xray results from the previous Wednesday. She told me what showed up in the xray was the start of arthritis. So tomorrow, if I have time, I'm going to go ahead and try to set up an appointment to see a Physical Therapist. Not sure what six visits will get me, but perhaps I will come away with some regular exercises to do so I won't be on 800mg of Ibuprofen for the rest of my life.

Above is the waterfall across the street from my work that they started up this week. During the Christmas season, they string lights up from all the trees, making it look very festive. There's a little path behind it, where I believe you can walk, although I've never gone back there. Perhaps this summer when it's a little warmer out, I'll check it out. It's just tough crossing a six-lane road on foot.

Here is an alien I found living under my desk at work. You can see a little bit of the hoses that they have inserted into the wall. Is this a baby alien, that was left here alone, while the parent went outside to stand guard? And exactly what is it doing? Stealing important steel data from our office? Inputing viruses?

This is the difference between our old and new carpeting. The old carpeting is blue, a little lighter than sky-blue, very worn and ugly looking. During the winter, with one particular pair of shoes, I am constantly getting shocked from a build-up of static electricity. The new carpeting is actually squares of the same pattern that are being alternated to give it a checkerboard appearance. It's much darker, but it will wear better than the older carpet. And I don't get a "charge" from it, lol.

Here's my keyboard that I've had for five years. Note the keys still have all their letters and numbers. I guess I either don't use it enough, or don't rest my fingers on the keyboard like other people do.

Here is an Orange Cone-Head Alien that I think might have been a hostage to the AT&T repair van. I could almost hear it calling out to me when I pulled up behind it.

For those of you that don't get a lot of Canadian Geese where you live, here's a picture I took last November as an example of the sometimes expansive flocks I get here on my lake/pond. There could be as many as 100 geese in this picture. Right now we don't have that many, but in a few weeks, during breeding season, we could see the number increase. Usually we have several pairs all with cute little goslings running around. At least once every spring, I have to stop my car on the way out to the main road, to let the adult geese and goslings cross the road.