Newbie on the Way

Baby McKay

OK, if you can't tell my wife is pregnant with our second child. My wife believes it is a girl ands I hope so as we can only agree on a girl's name. So we are already calling her McKay, my son pronounces it Bouquet. We won't know the gender for certain for another couple of months.

I am very excited. I love my son and I am eager to have another child. Yea, I am a big sap.

My Son Likes Chicks

Easter 2005

This is a picture of my son on Easter, gathering eggs with the help of our "big" chicken, Penny. She was disturbed by the plastic things in her yard so she would go peck at it until my boy would pick them up. She would then go find another one and peck at it etc. This made finding the eggs easier for my son but he still loved it. For days afterwards he would beg us to go hide the eggs for him to find again. It was great fun.

My son loves the chickens. His favorite is Bubba, a white crested black polish. This poor chicken is the runt of the group and the bottom of the pecking order. She has a black deformed toe, a cowlick in her crest and a black spot on her beak. She is far from what anyone would call a show bird. But she is spectacular in my son's eyes. I guess it shows again that it isn't what is on the outside that really matters.

In this way I wish I was more like my 2 1/2 year old son. How much better the world would be if we could all see the value of our fellows and look past the differences and flaws that we all have. Ah, to see the world through the eyes of a child again.

Trauma as a Chick

Dumpling

This is Dumpling. She is the newest addition to my flock. My wife MADE me buy her (not that I was opposed to the idea). The two birds I had that were supposed to be Light Brahmas are looking more and more like DARK Brahmas. Which is cool, I suppose but I really wanted ONE white chicken and that just wasn't happening.

To make a long story even longer, we went to the feed store the other day to get some grass seed and layer mix. When we noticed he still had one Light Brahma and my wife told me to get her (as we could already tell she was white from her star feathers). This is a picture of her right after we got her.

She is not all cute and fuzzy here but I know she is the same age as the other girls, which at this age is fairly important (same dietary and climatic requirements).

Now for the trauma, Mrs. Cluck who was supposed to be my Light Brahma had a bite of reality yesterday. I learned all this via a phone call with my wife. Apparently she got out of the hen house and squeezed through a gap in the wire in the run.

She found her way to our home again by the way of our back yard neighbor’s mother (she was visiting her new grandchild, she also happens to have chickens at her home). Upon arrival she (the bird) was sopping wet and quite disheveled. Mrs. Cluck had been pulled out of the jaws of the dog, who had initially found her.

Well for the last two days Mrs. Cluck has done nothing but sit in the back corner of the hen house and shake. I don't blame her. To be saved from the jaws of death like that...

The Feng Shui results

The Real Deal

Here are a few pictures of my new office. This is a picture from the door way.

As I can tell that no one has come to see my site for the last three days (I don't know how I failed you all) I am rather disinterested in giving these to you. But I suppose I am not really dong this for you. I am doing it for ME (although I did enjoy the boost to my ego.)

To think, some one out there considered me interesting. That must have meant that I was more interesting than their perspective of their own lives. In a VERY roundabout form of logic this must have meant that my life was in some way better than theirs. And that though made me feel better about my position. Oh well.

If all that nonsense is the support of my happiness then I am on a rather feeble foundation indeed. Good thing it isn't.

Yeah, ME I am doing this for ME. Ha HA hA ha ha ha ha ha ...

Floor Plan

Floor Plan
This is a copy of the floor plan I made before deciding to actually do the move. I wanted to make sure that everything I wanted would fit into the room. As you can see the total space is only 9.5 feet by 8.8 feet. Pretty small, a total of 84 square feet.

Wrap Around

Office WrapAround
I know that this is not the best or even close to good. But it gives a general idea of how the room looks. It goes from the door clock wise to the door again.

Week Three for the Chicks

Three weeks

Well here are the Girls at three weeks of confirmed age. I have suspicion that Little Red and the newly added "Dumpling" are a week older than the rest. Well I know they are a week older as they were at the store I got them at least one week before my other chicks arrived.

As you can see they are feathering out and are looking rather awkward. Hey, everyone is a teenager at some time in their lives. As previously mentioned they are soon to become "your Chickens."

I have more pictures to post I will hold them in reserve in the event that I have nothing interesting to report. Up coming are pictures of the new chick Dumpling and a current picture of Penny and an Easter picture of my son and Penny.

Apparently more really IS better!

As no one has read my site for the last four days I am accepting the inevitability of the fact that if I ignore you all, you will ignore me in return. What a cruel truth. Well just so you know, my office is all done. Tomorrow when I have a minute I will post some photos. Also I think that FuzzMo is now the same type of chicken as Mrs. Cluck. But I am skeptical as to whether any of them are Light Brahmas. I am leaning now toward Dark Brahmas but time will tell. The other chicks are all getting into their "Awkward Teen" phase. My wife commented the other day that they are soon to be "Your Chickens."

For those of you unaware of how I got into chickens, My wife saw them last year as chicks at the local farm supply store(we were buying fertilizer and flowers.) She instantly fell in love with them and BEGGED me to get her one. So I got her two (as I think it would have been lonely to be a lone chick in this dreary world.) She would love them and cuddle with them and talk "chicken" to them. But as soon as they got awkward looking they ceased to be "my girls" and became "your chickens." Anyway I had grown to love them as they got personalities and grew a little, so I took them in. And rest, as THEY say, is history...

Wife's Blog

Check out my wife's blog. She is a very intelligent person and a great writer in my opinion. She puts a lot of thought into everything. Unlike me.

I tend to fly by the seat of my pants through life. This has convinced me of one of two things. Either some higher power really likes me or I am d**n near the luckiest person on earth.

Sure, I have my down times, but all in all I have to say that I come out on top of, or much nearer to the top of, things than I deserve to. I would love to say that it is because of a superior intellect or talent base that I am able to spuriously accomplish all that I have. But that would be pushing the envelope of reality further than it could reasonably handle.

When I was a very young man I got in a head on collision with the "average guy next door" wagon and I don't think that I ever fully recovered from that incident. Now, my mother obviously wouldn't agree with that (but who’s would?) and depending on my wife’s mood you may get an answer like my mothers idealistic thoughts or much closer to my own realization.

Regardless of all that, I still think I am the coolest thing since the ice age. But even in that regard I am not alone. Deep down in the center of their beings, every guy thinks this. Yup ladies, you are all surrounded by the self perceived crowning glories of all creation.

Man are we cool or what? (Comments welcome. They may help us, the male side of mankind, with our enormous ego problems.)

I got a little off track there, just look at my wife's site IT is actually full of thought and insight on things that matter.

Until next time eat more calamari!

Feng Shui this!

Today the move began. I am currently home taking a break before I go back tonight to paint. Everything stared well but as I was progressing every one seemed to keep having these "Great Ideas". Essentially I am now relocating all of the storage and stockpiles of other peoples stuff. It turning out to be quite a bit more than I bargained for. I have piles of things spread through nearly the entire office.

I told every one that it would all be done Monday, my mother is coming into town tomorrow night with her parents (my 90+ year old grandparents), and for religious reasons I don't work on Sunday. This leaves me with one busy evening tonight and a fun morning tomorrow.

If I survive I will let you know the results and may even post a picture of my new office.

Signing off, a very tired evil Octopus (those four other limbs would sure be helpful).

Office Zen and the art of Feng Shui

I am going to move my office. The one I am in now has no windows and gets very hot. The new room I am moving into is currently our storage room. NO one minds as we all think that we need a larger storage room and I want the window so badly. The new office is smaller than the one I am in but I have measured it out and feel that it is sufficient for my needs.

Because it is a smaller room I have been reading up on my Feng Shui. I want my smaller office to have a more comfortable/healthy feeling in it. So I am going to incorporate the following elements:

• Something Red on my south wall.
• An 8x10 inch mirror so I can see the doorway (unfortunately the size and layout requires that my desk face away from the door)
  
• An odd number of green live plants
  
• A fountain of water /picture of running water near doorway
• A Quartz Crystal by the computer monitor

As I have never subscribed to the Feng shui Philosophy I don't know if this will work. But I have always held an interest in eastern cultures (I even speak Laotian and Thai fairly well) so I am willing to give it a try and if it works ... Don't knock it until you try it as THEY say.

Experiment Failed

Well, after the silence experiment yesterday I have come to a few conclusions. One my friend must have listened to awful music or there are two types of people on this issue, those who do well in utter silence and those who don't.

I found that not only did I not get more done than usual but I did less, a lot less. I couldn't keep focused I was jittery and on edge. I felt like I was in an isolation camp.

After this I came to realize that I really don't "listen" to the music while I work. I do occasionally tune my mind in to a song that I really like. But for the most part it is just back ground noise. I feel like I am near other people and I guess that is important to me.

So instead today I am trying a relaxing music (Enya) as opposed to the regular chatter and annoying advertisements on the radio, to see if that improves the work experience.

No Music Today

The other day a friend of mine told me that he stopped listening to music in his car or at work and that his productivity increase dramatically as well as his sense of peace. Well always one to give something a try I am trying it today, and quite honestly, so far all I feel is the oppressive silence in my office.

As I am in the far back corner office next to the copier and no other human soul, I use my radio to add back ground noise to keep me from going crazy. But if I can get more done at work well...

I will let you know if any thing changes but I am not sure that it will.

New Chicks

Click here
These are my new "Girls." I have a full grown bird as well and as soon as I get a decent picture of her I will post it here as well.

These girls are all breeds that I carefully selected for visual variety in both their plumage and laid egg color. Well all of them except for one. The store that was kind enough to put in the order for me to Murray McMurray (you need to order a minimum of 25 birds which is just more than I can have with current zoning regulations) received an additional chick in the order.

As he wasn't planning on it didn't get put into his inventory, added to the fact that we couldn't figure out what breed or gender it was he gave it to me for free.

It will be a little experiment I suppose. We have named it FuzzMo. I will keep you informed as to its progress.
new chicks

OK here is the deal ...

My brother's band/website/computer/every thing else was dubbed Evil Octopus. He was shot down and killed on the ides of March 2003 and I took on the name in his memory. He was a brutally honest, straight forward, and hilarious person. With that in mind, I plan on sharing those very things here.

Here begins the journey.