As you may have noticed, I didn’t write very much at all for the last several weeks. This was mainly due to added stress at work (read: inventory time, again!) and being engrossed in some things to take my mind off the other things that have been either depressing or bugging the heck out of me.

Where do I start? I guess we’ll start with our jobs. Aside from the added craziness at my work, things have gone well. During the big push for inventory readiness, I received a good annual review and a raise for my efforts. Actually, it was great with all high marks and maximum raise, which I’m used to getting. Still, I can’t shake the feeling sometimes that I’m not always taken seriously. One of my co-workers made a good point, though; we’re all not taken seriously, even when some of us have tons of experience. It’s just management mentality. That’s probably why I’m only comfortable being a supervisor at most. I can be an effective manager for a project, just don’t ask me to be one for a long-term basis! Still, I always have room to grow. Otherwise, like I said, things are going pretty smooth. On my wife’s side of things, she’s gotten some big-time recognition for her efforts at her job. In fact, she recently got a level promotion with a sizable raise. All in all, things are looking up for us on that subject and also financially as well.

Home life is not so exciting. The only thing that’s really kept us going here are our individual interests… and the birds, of course. Lately, things went into a decline with the health, and subsequent death, of our budgerigar Kiwi (see last post). However, a couple of friends came over last evening for a Doctor Who marathon and pizza night, and that did very well in dulling the pain from our loss. My camera is STILL in the shop! I brought it back in to Best Buy a day after pickup because it was exhibiting the same problems. They did call me today to let me know that it’s ready; I’m bringing batteries and a memory card so I can test it out right there in front of them. If it still doesn’t work, I’m demanding a refund and/or replacement. I’m getting short on patience for ineptitude. Other than those things, at least our health overall is doing fine, so we really can’t complain.

On the hobby front, I’ve been waiting on two puzzles that I ordered from different companies. One is the V-Cube 7 from Verdes Innovations. That one actually came for me on July 3rd, and I made an unboxing and demonstration video of it that day. Here’s the video:

I’ve done about ten or so solves with it and I’m very impressed and satisfied. It’s a little more challenging that a Rubik’s Professor cube, but that’s mainly talking about time consumption. The real challenge for me is to bring my time down to 20 minutes, then 15 and then eventually to ten minutes. I’ll be happy with 15 minutes, really, since I’m not much of a “speedcuber”. I really should try, though! Oh, and the other puzzle that I’m waiting on is the Pyraminx Crystal from Mefferts.com. It should be arriving later this month. I can’t wait; it should present a bigger challenge than the V-Cube, due to the design and function. I’m already planning the next puzzles for my collection later this year. I’d like to get the V-Cube 6; even though it’s a lower order than the 7×7 cube, even-number cubes are inherently harder to solve due to mathematical parity issues. Also, I wouldn’t mind an Eastsheen 2×2 cube, to replace the Rubik’s Ice Cube that’s in a state of shaky repair.

Well, I’ve just expended a lot of thought into this entry. Thanks for reading and being patient with my absence. Cheers!

Today, I’m very sad to report that one of our wonderful budgies, Kiwi, passed away.

For around two weeks or so, he had not been eating right. We tried to find out what the problem was, as he wasn’t eating food out of his containers. He would frequently hop to the floor and forage for anything he could find. We tried to get Kiwi to eat out of another container, just in case the other birds were bullying him out of his normal routine. Little did we know that he was suffering from a liver problem and it did not manifest itself in his droppings until a couple of days ago.

When the eating problem first came about, I took him to an avian veterinarian. She took samples, ran tests and couldn’t find the problem. She did give us antibiotic and anti-parasitic treatment just in the case that there was some other problem undetectable. During a week long regimen, he seemed to be doing better and gaining a little weight back. Afterwards, things began to decline for little Kiwi. However, all the while that this was going on, he was bright and alert and very active, despite a fluffed up appearance.

I took Kiwi in again today to get blood tests (which I had declined the first time, a bad move in hindsight) and X-ray imaging to further find a cause. Leaving him in the good doctor’s care, I went to do some errands. Two hours later, I was notified that after the anesthesia (needed for a panicky bird) and during the blood draw, his heart gave out. They tried CPR revival, but it did no good. I rushed in to the office, talked to the vet and said my goodbyes to his tiny, lifeless body. Afterwards, a necropsy revealed a deteriorating liver, not to mention an enlarged adrenal gland due to all the stress. We’ll know more when the blood tests come back in a few days, as we don’t know yet if any of the other birds are going to be affected by whatever caused the liver problem.

Our little Kiwi had his own distinctive personality, as all our birds have. He was, as Christine had said, “his own bird”. This English budgerigar had the biggest Napoleon complex of the flock, often rearing his beak at any of the birds that felt like getting near him. However, he had a gentler side towards his buddy, Alex the cockatiel, and he even made friends with the newer budgerigar, Bailey. In fact, it seemed that all the birds, even Thommen (our Eclectus parrot), wanted to be near him. A year and a half ago, I actually was making a music video with footage of Kiwi with the theme being “Everybody Wants You”. Unfortunately, the project got shelved when I needed more clips, and it was lost in the FileVault meltdown that happened around that time, so I can’t show it now, much as I’d love to. So I’ll put some pictures from the photo gallery here for you all to see.

After clicking on a pic, hit ‘P’ for previous pic, ‘N’ for next pic and ‘C’ to close lightbox window

I’m planning to bury him in the sideyard of our home on Saturday. It just doesn’t seem right treating him any other way.

When we adopted him, he was meant to be a partner for our female budgie, Colby. She died some time ago. I would hope that his spirit is flying with hers now.

Rest in peace, our little Kiwi.

Update: It seems that the liver problem was a hereditary condition, so that can’t be communicable to the other birds. The rest of the blood panel is still pending for psittacosis.