The Birds!!!!

Anyone that reads my blog regularly knows that I have bird issues. I HATE THEM!!! Kara finds this hysterical! I haven't always hated birds. They were just a nuisance but now it's full on war! I've been told by several people that if I get some rubber snakes that will keep the birds away. There's a problem with that. I can't find any rubber snakes. Seriously! The only ones I've found are fluorescent colors & I don't want that. One of the floats in the Mardi Gras parade was throwing just plain  black ones & you should've seen me & Dean hollering for some. We didn't get any. Anyway, first the birds were building nests & pooping on my columns, then they were hanging out on the ceiling fans, then they were attempting to build nests INSIDE the ceiling fan, then they were hanging out on the outdoor speakers which just happens to be by the back door so there was always a nice pile of bird poop there & now this

They're DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!! I bought a bird bath with the hopes that they'll hang out there instead of destroying things. Needless to say the cushions on the new patio furn. will not be left out. Stupid birds.

What's really bad is birds are like the new "in" decorating accessory. Everytime I see one I get aggravated. You will not find any birds at my house!! Well, at least not any fake, non destructive ones.

Toodles!

Public Enemy #1

Or maybe just Traci's Enemy #1!!! I know everyone is sick of hearing about the birds but they obviously know how much they annoy me & are enjoying it!!!! I've talked about the birds here and here & multiple other times I'm sure. So yesterday morning when I was locking the door I saw something out of the corner of my eye & when I looked up it was a stupid bird & it went swooping by & scared me half to death. Fast forward to last night. Yesterday was Dean's birthday & we went to Flemings for dinner. When we got home Dean was unlocking the door & I told him about the stupid bird from earlier & he said "it's sitting on the speaker now". I look up & sure enough there's a bird up there. Lovely. I went inside & got my camera. I thought it would be gone but nope, he was still there.

Now, since when do birds just sit there & look at you when you're 2 feet away?? What kind of stupid bird is this??  Fast forward to this morning. When I'm leaving for work I looked up & the bird is STILL there. He wouldn't look at me this time. I'm wondering if maybe I blinded him with my flash last night. Either that or he's laying eggs up there. Whatevs.

So back to last night. We went to Flemings for dinner. BEST STEAK EVER!!! We've been a few times before & it's ALWAYS been fabulous. It's on the same scale as Ruth's Chris & Sullivan's but to Dean & I there's no comparison. If you have one near you I highly recommend it for a special occasion.

Today I'm leaving early & I'm off tomorrow. Very excited about this. Dean is going to get the Christmas trees put together & I'll decorate all weekend. Tomorrow we plan to do some Christmas shopping.  It should be a good weekend!!

Toodles!!!

Victory is Ours!!!

I sound like Les!! For those of you not in my area or familiar with LSU or Les Miles I'll explain. For whatever reason he uses the word "Victory".  A LOT. He can never say they won, or they need to win. It's always VICTORY! It's just weird. Anywho, No Thugs won this week!!! WOOOO HOOOO!!!! Some of you may be asking what I'm talking about? Others may be thinking, who cares what I'm talking about? Regardless, I'm talking about our fantasy football team, No Thugs. My friend Wendy & I are co-owners of the team. We haven't been very successful this season but it is only week 3. We are very excited to have won. Not only because it's our first win this season but we beat one of the guys that generally does ok AND we scored the most points of all the teams!! Granted, a few of our players had "career games" & will quite possibly never again play as well as they did Sunday but we'll take it! If nothing else, we're guaranteed to not go winless.

On another note, I need some help. I'm having a love/hate relationship with some birds. I guess technically it's a full on hate/hate relationship because there's just not much to like about them. We have columns across the front of our house &  as long as we've lived there birds are nesting on top of the columns in the small space between the porch ceiling & the top of the column. When I say nesting, I mean building a nest while dropping nest building materials in my pretty landscaping, then actually hanging out in the nest & laying eggs & then baby birds are actually born. Have you ever seen a baby bird after hatching??? EEEWWW! They're so not cute. They're also killing their babies before they're born because I often find cracked eggs when I'm pulling weeds. The main reason that I'm hating these birds is because they're doing their bird business all over my columns & even my front door occasionally. It's disgusting! 

The birds weren't happy with just defacing the front of my house, they've now moved into the patio. The spot of choice there is the ceiling fans. When this first started all you had to do was to flip the switch & turn the fans on & they'd take off. Not the ideal solution being that I can't stand around the light switch all day long. Well, now the birds apparently think the fans are a nice little carousel ride because they don't even flinch when you turn them on! So, now I have birds doing their bird  business on my ceiling fans, patio furniture & patio!  I've tried to find a solution & aside from sitting out there with a sling shot or a gun, I haven't been successful. Any ideas??

Before PETA hears about this, I'm not totally against the birds. I have no problem with them using the waterfall in the pool as a bird bath. Well, I have a little bit of a problem with it but I realize it's really hot & they need to cool off. What I really want is no more bird "stuff" all over my stuff!!!

Toodles!!

What I Learned At Lunch

Today I had lunch with my friends at work, Aaron & Stan & my boss Dean. Sidenote - my boss & hubby have the same name, first AND last. Weird, I know. Anyway, we all went to a little Mexican place by the office. I had a taco salad & it was really good.

Somehow our conversation led to some random things. I have a knack for remembering ridiculous amounts of useless information that I'll never do anything with. This lunch provided me with even more useless info. Bright colored birds are male while the duller colored ones are female. Black birds, you know the ones that fly around everywhere, can be eaten.  Why you'd want to is beyond me. If you dig a hole when there's a full moon & put the dirt back in the hole, you'll have too much dirt or if you do it with a new moon, you won't have enough dirt to fill it up. Again, why anyone would do this is beyond me. If you go to the trouble of digging a hole chances are you have something to put in it & it's not the dirt you just dug out. Although, it does make me wonder if this is actually true. I said it was random.

Speaking of birds, I have a bird problem. We have too many of them. Those little black birds that I spoke of earlier. They land on the top of the columns in front of my house & build nests, have baby birds & poop down the front of my columns. They've even pecked a hole at the top of one column. I need to figure out a way to stop this. I'm willing to put out a bird feeder & bird bath if they'd stay away from the columns but I kinda doubt that would work. I don't know how smart or cooperative birds are. Someone suggested I put out the bird feeder because it would attract the squirrels which would keep away the birds. Someone else told me to put speakers at the top of each column & when they hear the talking they freak out & leave. Speakers? Seriously? That sounds like an awful lot of trouble to go to for birds. When I was watching Steel Magnolias the other night I did wish I could just sit in the yard & shoot at them like Drum did. That's how much it irritates me. I could deal with the nests but the poop is driving me crazy!

Yesterday, I went for a bike ride. I decided to do that since I haven't gotten new shoes yet. That wasn't very smart. It didn't feel cold but it was windy & riding a bike in the wind isn't good when you have sensitive sinuses. I rode for 30 minutes & went home. Then I had a pounding headache the rest of the night. At least I did some sort of exercise.

It's been a slow week so that's all for now.

Toodles!