NOOOO! Mean birdie. I even fed you sunflower seeds today you ungrateful sky rat.

My dad had a sulphur crested cockatoo when I was growing up. I discovered early that I was not a "bird person". To this day, no one is sure who taught him to say "Hello, asshole."

So yeah, birds are creeps.

Barleywine said:

Hmm . . . "parakeet poppers," "parakeet-on-a-stick," the mind boggles!

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Tastes like chicken!

Hey - the French ate Otolans - head, feathers, and all until it was outlawed ... probably more meat on a parakeet ...

MaryHeather said:

My dad had a sulphur crested cockatoo when I was growing up. I discovered early that I was not a "bird person". To this day, no one is sure who taught him to say "Hello, asshole."

So yeah, birds are creeps.

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I so never want a cockatoo. I like peace and quiet. It seems in every video I've run across of them, they're going insane. Except the one who was feeding the dog treats. That was funny.

Birds aren't for everyone. I've had Joey for 17 years, and we get along very well. He can be stubborn, chew things, make a mess. But for me, it's worth it.

Barleywine said:

Amen to that. I exhausted every shred of my resourcefulness and patience trying to keep them off of our bird feeders last winter. My next squirrel deflector is going to say "Remington" on the side of it.

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I'd be careful with that plan. About a year or so ago, in the town just south of where I live an older gentleman had gotten in trouble for shooting at squirrels from his yard, killing some, wounding some and leaving them to suffer etc. Someone called the police, he got charged, the story made it into the local papers etc.

Then just a few days later, in the paper was the headline of an article "Squirrel shooter falls from roof of his home and dies". There was a bit of outrage over the headline, naming him as the squirrel shooter, considering that the man was now dead! But I totally thought it was some weird squirrel killing karma at work. Of course there was rampant speculation that he was up on that roof shooting at squirrels again.

Sorry about your cards, Dryadintherealm! One of my dogs got a hold of my Bonefire tarot deck and destroyed several cards, as well as the handmade bag it came in. It is completely unusable now. And it has sold out altogether. I'll have to wait for Schiffer to publish it to get a new one. It will likely not be as well made as the self published version I had, though I hope I am wrong about that.

prudence said:

I'd be careful with that plan. About a year or so ago, in the town just south of where I live an older gentleman had gotten in trouble for shooting at squirrels from his yard, killing some, wounding some and leaving them to suffer etc. Someone called the police, he got charged, the story made it into the local papers etc.

Then just a few days later, in the paper was the headline of an article "Squirrel shooter falls from roof of his home and dies". There was a bit of outrage over the headline, naming him as the squirrel shooter, considering that the man was now dead! But I totally thought it was some weird squirrel killing karma at work. Of course there was rampant speculation that he was up on that roof shooting at squirrels again.

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New Hampshire is the "Live Free or Die" state where you can legally shoot someone in public if you'e attacked, not just in your own home, so just about anything that isn't regulated (just not deer, moose, turkeys, rabbits, bears, wildfowl, etc. which all have a "season") is fair game. Plus, my nearest neighbors are hunters and at least a mile away. This is a fairly "libertarian" state, so I doubt there will be any backlash. But I WAS half-joking there . . .

When I lived in NH we always said the state motto was 'Live, Freeze, and Die.'

I knew you were joking about shooting them ... on the surface ....

Barleywine said:

New Hampshire is the "Live Free or Die" state where you can legally shoot someone in public if you'e attacked, not just in your own home, so just about anything that isn't regulated (just not deer, moose, turkeys, rabbits, bears, wildfowl, etc. which all have a "season") is fair game. Plus, my nearest neighbors are hunters and at least a mile away. This is a fairly "libertarian" state, so I doubt there will be any backlash. But I WAS half-joking there . . .

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I didn't mean watch out for getting arrested or ticketed for shooting them, I meant watch out for the karmic smack that may knock you off the roof (or kill you some way or another)! He did this in a neighborhood, so it was also not cool to be shooting a 22 rifle in a neighborhood, and in California, especially the county I am in, everyone has guns and I hear shots ring out in my own neighborhood far too often. Nothing like where I grew up (Cape Cod, MA, not the biggest gun toting state in the nation). I also realized you were mostly joking, and so was I. Even though this really did happen.ETA~ My joke, if it's not terribly apparent, was something like "God secretly adores squirrels and will smite anyone who wantonly kills them for simply eating the seed left out for "sky rats".

Huh. My father-in-law once got a visit from the cops for shooting squirrels in his backyard. But he is not the infamous "squirrel shooter" mentioned above. He is alive and well, albeit no longer shooting squirrels with his bb gun! (Which I'm happy about...I can't even go fishing because I feel bad for the fish!)

dryadintheelm said:

Yeah, swedishfish612 I'm working on trimming them down and I can barely fit the titles in, it did occur to me that I could cut the titles off but I don't think I'm ready to go quite that far. I wanna save enough of the edge that if I get absent minded and turn my back again there might be a chance of saving them again.

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I get that. And if you change your mind later, you can always cut them smaller. I thought it would be too much for me when I first started doing it, but I actually rather like the size. And I don't see a card and immediately think, "Well, it's the 5 of Cups, so...." I'm forced to look at the image.