Lazy Saturday

We all have our list of things that bring us great joy - for some of us it's a great meal, others live for a fine wine.  Some seek thrills, others exotic locales.  For me, one of my greatest joys in life is when The Bean looks into my eyes and says, "Let's take it easy today".  Awwwww yeah....nothing beats a Lazy Saturday.

When you have 2 Great Danes and a cat, Lazy Saturdays tend to be a family affair.  Here's the evidence:

Lily thinks her brother makes a fantastic pillow.  Her brother thinks The Bean's lap is pretty comfy too.

If you looked up the definition of lazy you'd likely find a reference to this position.

Peaches joined in on the "party" as well.

The face of slumber.

Awww yeah, that's the sweet spot.

The whole gang in our bed.

Seriously....have you ever seen a sweeter face?

HRHPSBTDOF

You may be thinking that the title of this post makes no sense.  I don't blame you :)

In our continuing efforts to get ourselves promminently featured on "Animal Hoarders" The Bean and I have once again added to the family.  This new addition (who came with the name Peaches) pitter patters about on 4 adorable little feet, features a glowing coat of black, brown and gold and, at what I would guess is a mere 4 pounds of spunk, fancies herself the new queen of the household.

We have thus named her Her Royal Highness Peaches Sugar Bottoms, The Dutchess of Firestone.

We've only had her 2 days so I don't have many great photos of her yet.  Well, that and the fact that in those 2 days I'm certain I've seen her sit still for somewhere in the vicinity of 16 seconds....total.  Needless to say, we are in love with her.  And, as it turns out, we aren't the only ones.

That's Peaches checking out Dublin.  Recall, at 7 months of age she's about 4 pounds "big".  That would make her 1/22 of Dublin's weight.  Also notice, she is carefully balancing on the back of a chair....a space less than an inch wide.  Did I mention she's FEARLESS???

It sure is getting interesting at the "House O' Bean and Hubby O' Bean".

The Pants

When I was around 5 years old we got our first parrot.  Thinking ourselves the clever sorts we named him Tuki.  Sounds exotic and interesting doesn't it?  Until you learn that "Tuki" is simply Hebrew for "Parrot". 

That's right.  We named our first parrot, "Parrot."

Anyway, I've been a bit hooked on the psittacine scene ever since.  When I first discovered The Bean I had my own little feathered nugget, Dalia.  She's a Pionus.  For you non-bird types out there she basically looks like a miniature vulture.  Or as The Bean likes to poke fun at me for saying at dusk....the sky at that time looks, "...just like the feathers of a Dusky Pionus."

Here's the thing about Dalia.  She's a beotch.  Don't get me wrong - I love that little nugget sooooo freakin much.  And she loves me.  In fact, she loves me so much she refuses to give anyone else a single thought.  Check that - she refuses to be nice to anyone else.  At all.

This does not sit well with those of the Bean ilk (eg, The Bean...since she's really the only Bean there is.  I mean, there are lots of beans in the world.  But only one Bean.  OK, I digress.).

Anyhoo....the Bean was pretty fascinated with the mini-vulture.  But the vulture could not be touched by the Bean.  How do you solve such a problem?  You get the Bean her own little feathered nugget!



That's Maddie.  Aka, Maddie Pants.  Aka, The Pants.  Aka, one Spicy Nugget!

She's about the size of a small banana but she's got the parrot-tude of a 500 lb gorilla.  That's right, she our Spicy Nugget. 

The good news is, the Bean likes spicy things.  And spicy things....well, turns out they tend to like the Bean.

All was good in the world again.

Here we go!

I have a Bean.  Actually, I have THE Bean.  That fact basically makes me the luckiest dude I know.  So, when the Bean speaks, I listen.  And the Bean likes my pictures.

I'm not a photographer.  I've been piddling around with an older Canon Rebel XT for a few months now....playing with all the buttons, contorting myself into off positions on the floor to get the right angle, and generally fumbling my way through Photoshop Lightroom.  Along the way, I discovered a funny little truism....if you haphazardly push buttons and click the little silver guy at the top of the camera over and over and over and over again....every so often you get a lovely accident....one of those images that some people just might say are a couple notches above terrible!

This past Christmukkah (yup, we're one of thos families) the Bean put a big smile on my face when she handed me a gift wrapped picture frame - turns out that clever little Bean took one of my lovely accidents and had it printed and framed.

I sure do love that Bean.

Sooooo....here it is:

This past summer we took a trip with the Parents-Of-Bean and Sisters-Of-Bean (along with their progeny) to Captiva Island in Florida.  Let me tell you....I HATE humidity.  The Bean can attest to the unparalleled levels of crank-itutde I seem to embody when I'm overly hot.  Humidity sends my crank-itude into the realm of epic.  Having said that, you MUST go to Captiva.  It was awesome in so many ways. 

One evening the whole family piled onto a little boat to take a sunset bay cruise in search of dolphins.  We say many dolphines....we also saw some really fascinating birds, including a few pelicans  (did I mention I'm stupidly fascinated with birds?  Even if many of them are the spawn of some sort of demon).  The one above was just settling in for the night as our boat glided by.

So, there it is.  The first in what I hope is a series of lovely accidents I'll share here.  Hope you enjoy!