Legs and Mr Feathers

Well, it's a new year, isn't it?

Over the weekend I got all the final remnants of Christmas cleared from my house. The tree had come down on Dec 27th, but I still had boxes and presents strewn all over the house. Saturday night I got all those put away, and even spent a couple of hours working on the back bedroom, aka The Beast, which had again become very beastly.

I was ready to get the regular schedule of life back, but I wasn't quite prepared for how bad it was yesterday at work. Nor how much more was left to do in general housecleaning once work was over. Therefore, acroers, you suffered. Acrochallenge will return.

Speaking of Christmas, and I'm glad it's over, but I did get some really nice things. I got one of those hair dryers that makes your hair straight (and wonder of wonders, it actually works), a new mixer which zoomed right through a cake with the thickest batter ever, and a new pair of silver earrings, since I lost one of the pair I normally wore every day of my life.

I hate to play favorites, but if I had to pick the best gifts I got it would be the new videocam from Mr M and the new computer chair from the folks. This computer chair is wonderful. It's a Sealy Posturpedic, which still makes me giggle a little because I thought Sealy only made mattresses, but this chair's about as comfortable as a good mattress. And it's come in very handy for the long hours I'm sitting at the computer trying to learn to use the videocam and software.

My first effort with the camera is up at the Comfy Chair Cinema. I hope you'll go check it out, it's a little number called "The Barnyard Boys."

Anyway, enough of me, I hear you say, what about Sherman? What did he get for Christmas?

Well, Mr M went hog wild, well, not hog wild, but he did go animal-species wild. Courtesy of him, Sherman has two new pets and the Poderosa is a little livelier. Whether I was ready for it or not.

His first gift was Legs. Legs is a giant tarantula. He's a nice spider, and even Baby Lily likes him and isn't afraid of him. He walks and turns, and as you can see below, he likes Sherman very much.




Now, Mr Feathers. I had a problem with Mr Feathers right upon the unwrapping. Two, actually.

The first problem is that Mr Feathers is a big, bright, loud, squawking maccaw. The second is that the "loud, squawking" was an assumption, because he would not work in the box. The "try me!" feature was distinctly devoid of loud squawking.

Mr Feathers sat in his box in my living room until Sunday, until Mr M finally shamed me into opening that box and making sure he wasn't broken. So Sunday night I picked up the box and started opening.

Remember last year? Remember Sherman's sports car, that was packed into its box so tightly it took me an hour to open it? Well, Mr Feathers' box was shaping up to be the same way, and, well, I wasn't overly keen on Mr Feathers anyway and wasn't about to spend an hour on him, and so I started ripping, cutting, cussing, tearing, cussing, yanking, and cussing. I got him open in record time, and he still didn't work.

I decided to check his batteries, which of course required a screwdriver to get at, and I opened the big bird up and found he required not two, but four batteries. Four of my new batteries and more screwdriving later, and I turned him back on, and I really need to state at this point that I would have loved to drop-kick Mr Feathers across the kitchen floor.

But in turning him back on, I realized Mr M had not bought a broken bird, he'd bought a bird with bad batteries. Because right to life came Mr Feathers, and it was all I could do to keep from screaming when Mr F started swaying back and forth and singing to calypso music.

I hate toys that sing and dance. They all remind me of that singing bass you used to see commercials for. I was already mentally finding spots in closets where Mr Feathers could fit.

Then I looked at the buttons on the back of Mr Feathers, and saw he had different switches, and so I started playing. And lo and behold, I found a switch where Mr Feathers had forgotten how to sing and dance. So I didn't really feel the need to drop-kick him across the kitchen floor anymore, but I was still a little dubious.




OK, "Peekaboo" is cute, and the fact that when I'd walk away from Mr Feathers he'd say, "Where'd you go?" didn't hurt, either.

But just as I was standing there in the kitchen looking at this great bird and saying aloud, "What am I going to do with you?" he came out with this.




Well, I mean, after that, what can you do? Mr Feathers and I are now friends. He's currently enjoying a cracker on the kitchen table and I've been reading his directions. Apparently he has a feature where I can record myself saying various phrases and Mr Feathers will repeat them for me. I'm currently mulling over "Listen to this week's Hucklebug Podcast" and possibly "Please give Bet five dollars."

I don't know how many more creatures can live in this space I call the Poderosa. I have a feeling I'll be finding out in the future.

Betland's Olympic Update:
* Don't forget to stop by the Comfy Chair Cinema!