Obsessed

I have had two things come in to my life this week that didn't take me too long to get obsessed with.  So much so that I have made a chicken dish for dinner two nights in a row.  Unheard of for me, as I evenly distribute the chicken, beef, pork and Cowboys (*) throughout my two week menu plan.

With all the hoopla over the recent release of the movie, The Hunger Games, I decided to check the book out of the Amazon Prime lending library.  I have had it for - dare I say - a couple of weeks,  and I finally broke down and decided to start reading it Monday.  With no due dates to contend with, I guess I was hoarding it just in case I blew through reading the other 500+ books that I had on my Kindle.  Lord knows, I always gotta have one book in reserve for emergency situations.

Oh, my.  Is this ever a good book.  I am about halfway through it and have started to read it ever so slowly because I don't want it to end.  At the same time, I am so anxious to know what happens at the end that I am desperately fighting off the urge to read the last few pages, or to look the ending up on Wikipedia.

Or both. 

Even though I am almost always disappointed in the movie version of a book - The Help is the only movie that has ever been as good as the book - I cannot wait to see The Hunger Games. As of yesterday, it is still playing in town.  I will be dragging Randy to the theatre sometime next week.  We may even throw caution to the wind and go out on the weekend.  Something like a date, but not quite.

If I don't have my nose glued to my Kindle, I can be found perched on the counter in the kitchen watching the three baby cardinals that hatched on Monday. Momma and papa cardinal have been hanging around in the shrub outside the kitchen window since last winter.  The nest building started a few weeks ago.  Randy has taken the screen off the window so I would be able to take pictures without having to open the window and disturb the new family.  

I have been keeping an eye on Momma Cieta for the past couple of days, knowing that at anytime, we would, hopefully, see some babies. I had a scare last weekend when Roxy roused a snake in the woods by the kitchen window. Randy hosed it down with water, (the snake, not Roxy) because we didn't want the snake to get to any eggs that were in the nest. The snakes can have all the rats and mice they can find, but baby cardinals are off limits. 

Momma Cieta left her nest on Monday afternoon.  I was doing my best to look into the nest for eggs, all the while trying my very best not to fall off the kitchen counter, when all of a sudden, I saw an orange beak pop up. 

A couple more chapters of The Hunger Games read and another orange beak and some cottony head fuzz.  Read some more, another beak.

Papa Cieta is now helping with the feeding chores.  Pretty soon Momma will be leaving to attend to another brood in another nest.

I have become obsessed with theses babies. I stare at the nest when Momma is gone just willing some sort of movement to make sure Huey, Louie and Gooey are okay. Once I have counted three sets of beaks, then I start tapping my toes and checking the time to see how long it has been since a parent has been around.

By the time momma or papa gets back with food, the babies are famished and flopping around the nest with their beaks open and eager for their chewed up worms. 

When I told Randy that I almost cry with relief whenever momma returns with food and that I was worried that the babes are too hot in the afternoon sun, he kindly suggested that I go back to reading my book.

So I grabbed my Kindle and climbed back up onto the kitchen counter.

Have the BEST day ever!
~ Dorothy

 (*) Papa Murphy's pizza