Five Deer and a Lovebird

So the wildlife in my backyard has gotten a bit more interesting lately. Usually I only see one, maybe two deer out there. A few days ago, however, there were five. Yes, five. Three adults, two fawns (which didn't have spots but were still suckling). Funny thing is, I didn't notice said deer until I was out in my backyard, walking Pepper the Boston terrier. (But Pepper's not exactly bright, so she didn't notice them either.) Dumb things just stood there and stared at me and the dog, wondering what we were going to do (answer: Pepper did the business that she's supposed to). Once Pepper started growling, though, then they scampered off into the woods.

They'd better not be pooping all over the backyard.

Deer aside, the animals back there are pretty boring. Then Phil makes the lovely discovery of a very strange bird living in the birdhouse, being a friendly neighbor to the sparrows. This bird looks a little bit like a parakeet, only a tad larger and with a shorter tail. It's mostly green, with a pinkish head and parrot's bill. In other words, this bird is something very much not native to the state of Missouri. I did a quick search on Google Images, and it turns out that this thing is most likely a lovebird. What a lovebird is doing in my backyard birdhouse is a complete mystery. I'm thinking that it's someone's liberated pet; it seems to have no fear of humans at all. I mean, I was standing right under the tree branch where it was perched this afternoon and it only sat there and looked at me like I was some sort of retard.

Dumb bird. I have a couple of buddies in my taekwondo class that own parrots; perhaps they can give me a few words of wisdom as to what to do with the lovebird.

Speaking of taekwondo class, it's going really well. I had sparring class tonight, which was pretty interesting. My instructors have been reshuffling the sparring classes (by what standards the rest of us have NO IDEA), so I'm stuck in a class with not very many adults. The oldest of us is probably 18, and the majority of people I would even attempt to spar are about 15-17. Unfortunately, these folks are in short supply: the rest of the people in the class are KIDS. That's right... I'm in a class with a bunch of 12-year-olds. Needless to say, I'm not very happy about this. I don't want to fight kids. I don't feel right attempting to hit kids, especially since they're shorter than I am. It doesn't work. Not, don't get me wrong; the folks I did end up fighting were good people; they're in my normal Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday classes. But KIDS? In my SPARRING CLASS?!

I'm hoping I get reshuffled to the class with older folks... You know, the ones that I actually like sparring and getting beaten by. Because honestly, if we're being arranged by ability, then doesn't that stifle our development since we're not able to get tips from the ones better than we are??? Ah, well. We'll see what happens with that. In the meantime, I'm only 22 more classes away from being eligible to test for my black belt. That makes me happy. :)

Photo shoot tomorrow. Oh, joy.

Birthday in a week and a half. Here I come, #17!! :D

Got my ticket for "Wicked!" I'm excited about this one! This is where I get down on my knees and thank God that I have friends that know how to use their presale connections... Because we got the GOOD SEATS!!! Second row in the first mezzanine, yo! None of this "Hey, being on the floor sucks because I can't see over you people" stuff! Plus, I've been wanting to see "Wicked" since I first heard the music for it. It's supposed to be a really sweet musical, so I'm sure my girlfriends and I will have a great time mouthing along to pretty much every song in the play.

Going to see "Body Worlds" next weekend! For some reason, I'm fascinated by the prospect of seeing actual dead bodies being put on display for educational purposes. It should be really cool. I'm calling it my 17th b-day party. :)

School is going. I've scheduled one midterm and have taken two others. I still tend to have homework up to my eyebrows, particularly in Lit. Blargh.

I get to sleep in tomorrow... Again, that makes me happy. I don't get to sleep on many Saturdays any more, which is pooface because I'm still a lazy bum.

Right then... I'm going to go wash the sweat off of my stinky self and go to bed.

So there ya go, Charlie!! :D

Mood: Tired

Random Useless Fact of the Day: In the early days, people with syphilis were cured by being given malaria (yes, THAT malaria). The fever killed the syphilis germs, and once the malaria was offed by a few doses of quinine, voila! Cured!