I needed a new toothbrush...You know, after all that puking and brushing the taste of vomit out of my mouth......Eeeew

I went to Hannaford looking for a small head soft toothbrush. (I have a small mouth and sensitive gums.)

Guess what squee I found?!

I'm not so sure I am so much into Hello Kitty as a cowgirl....But I grabbed two toothbrushes.  One with the blue handle and one with the the purple handle.  I will let you know if the cowgirl Hello Kitty brush works any better than the Geisha girl brush.

I am back to work tomorrow.  I expect it will drain me.  Then tomorrow evening, we have a big meeting at the high school regarding Nature Boy moving on up next fall.  I am not sure exactly how it is that my baby is now so old as to be going to high school. <shakes head>

Well...since I am home convalescing, how about some pictures?

But first an update on me....I am doing better, but still am pretty sick feeling.  I am trying to rehydrate myself, but am still losing fluids in an <ahem> rather unpleasant way.  However, that is easing off some.  I have been doing the BRAT diet today and it's been okay.  My stomach still doesn't feel great, but at least it is not turning inside out anymore. 

I have some winter pictures from a couple of weeks ago before we had the Great Rain.  It was an icy, crisp morning and dh and I went out to do the chicken chores and were just amazed at how the frost had landed on all the surfaces making vertical frost flakes. So pretty! Everything sparkled in the morning sun....It was quite magical.

So pretty! 

It's funny, I've been bantering a bit with Fibermom on Facebook about ice storms....That she does not really care for them and that I think they are kind of fun and beautiful.  I guess I have to like winter and what it throws at me, or living in Vermont would not work so well.  

Now...Speaking of weather, we had the Great Rain last week.  It got very, very mild here and rained...no it poured all day. I guess that was Monday. All that sparkly snow in the pictures above is gone!!!  We have since gotten a bit more so at least the ground is white again, but it does bring to mind the phrase, "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes."

Here is a whine blog:

I am sick.  I have the worst stomach bug of any I can recall in my whole life.  I can't move for fear of setting off another round of vomiting.  I can't avoid moving as I have (TMI here folks) explosive diarrhea and must dash to the toilet.  My stomach isn't just nauseated, it hurts.  I feel like I have been turned inside out from such severe vomiting.  And last evening, I had 8 spells of severe vomiting in less than 4 hours.  I got some sleep last night, but did have to get up to vomit more and dash to the potty more.

Ugh, ugh, ugh.

This particular bug, I picked up at work.  Over half our department's staff has had it over the last few weeks, with evidently, more folks getting it.  Clearly it is highly contagious, even with all the hand washing, hand sanitizing and glove wearing we do.  My concern is that dh and Nature Boy will get it too.  <sigh>

So, here I lay on the couch, feeling miserable and biding my time until the next bathroom run. 

We have fledglings! Squee!

According to the book, the babies should have started fledging yesterday.  I had no fledglings yesterday, nor early this morning....But about midmorning, I went up to change their cage and two of them were out and about!

They fly well.  Evidently, finches are hardwired to fly.  However, they are not hard wired as to how to land gracefully (or land at all!) nor on how to control their flight.  There has been lots of flying into the side of the cage and then clinging on for dear life as the baby slowly slides down the bars.  There has also been some very untidy crash landings onto branches and the bottom of the cage.  Each time though, they manage to get themselves righted and balanced and into the air again.

There is also a major disturbance in the group.  The parent birds are very protective and since the babies are all over the cage now, they are giving my other pair a hard time.  I expect this will all even out as the parents start pushing the babies toward independence and some pecking order issues are worked out.

These babies won't actually be staying with us though.  They are spoken for by Berry, who would like a lovely bit of finchy sweetness at her house.

Now, the pictures: 

Here were the babies a few days ago skulking in their nest.

And then this morning....Freedom!

See how the babies still have their juvenile plumage? They are dark gray and their beaks are black.  At this point, there is no way to sex them...It will be a surprise later.

Yes, I took advantage of a bumbling baby and caught it....It was very easy to do this morning as the poor thing couldn't figure out how to fly away.  I tried to catch one a few minutes ago (late afternoon) and they have already learned how to dodge and weave and stay away from the Hand.

Of course, once I had the baby this morning, it perched on my thumb and stayed there.  I waited and waited and finally had to just sort of slide it off onto one of the perches. 

As you know, I love my finches.  They are so fun to watch and so pleasing to hear. I am very glad I got them!

Roses!

I don't even remember if I blogged properly about our anniversary lunch.  We went to a nice restaurant. Dh had made reservations and when we arrived we were seated at our table.  On our table were 14 ivory roses that dh had had delivered....So sweet!

The are a week and a half old now and are just starting to go by.  They opened into huge, luscious blossoms. 

I think there is something extra romantic about getting beautiful roses on my anniversary.