Last Tuesday afternoon (where does the time go?) Oolong got her toenails stuck in the mesh of the Finsterium. After being threatened by the Evil Hand Of Evil Catching, she managed to wriggle herself free. But the mishap proved that it had been far too long since we've caught all the birds to trim their nails. So Tuesday night, armed with the Green Net Of Evil Catching, and the Flashlight Of Evil Looking, Bruce caught them all so I could give them a nice pedicure. Oolong was first, and got all her nails lightly trimmed. The rest of the Finsters didn't need such a drastic procedure. Mostly, they needed their back toenails on each foot seriously trimmed, and maybe one or two others. Szechwan (Pepper) clearly learned a thing or two from the late Earl Grey, since he stayed hiding in a nest box during the whole Catching Event. Bruce got him too, though; his toenails hardly needed any trimming at all.

I have to say, the whole bird catching and toenail trimming process is much easier when you only have five of them! I put Szechwan (Pepper) back into the Finsterium directly after his trim, but I paused just long enough to take a picture before I put the rest of the Finsters back home.

They're all beautiful now.

Interestingly, the phrase "long toenails" is the one that most often gets this blog discovered by search engines. In 2006, "long toenails" brought up this blog 939 times; it represents 18.8% of all search "keyphrases" from the year, and the next most popular phrase only represents 1.9% of all searches.

But it's more interesting than that. Let's look at January, 2007 in a bit more detail. During that month, the search phrase "long toenails" hit this blog 99 times; the next most popular phrase came in at 23. However, the full list of keyphrases is even more telling: "long toenail" got 9 hits, "very long toenails" got 5 hits, "long toe nails" got 3, and "very long toenail" got 2. The following phrases each got one hit during January, making a grand total of 125 people interested in long toenails:
   • toenail piercing
   • ;long toenails
   • long-toenails
   • picture long toenail
   • toenail long
   • pretty long toenails
   • long toenails and beckham

Now, when I looked up the phrase "long toenails" on Google, The Finster Log showed up somewhere around 300. Nobody is really "finding" the blog that way. But if you look it up on Google Images, guess what shows up at number 4 right now? A photo I took of Nutmeg after she'd died, because I was sad about her, and she had such interesting long nails. The original photo is much bigger (but just as skewed to the red): click to see Nutmeg's very long toenails (pops).

But when people search for "long toenails" on Google, they're probably looking for something more along the lines of "long toenails and beckham" than pictures of bird's toes. I have purposely not included a link to a direct Google search, since many people consider long toenails on (mostly) women to be very attractive, if you know what I mean: wink wink, nudge nudge. Do your own search, people! And turn off SafeSearch Filtering to get the full effect. You know, if you want to.

Whatever your preferences, my guess is that the 100-plus people who may actually have discovered this blog last month looking for "long toenails" were probably not expecting Nutmeg.

Surprise!

Not sure why I think that's so funny, but I do. And this entry will just reinforce those search results. Tee hee. Hope I haven't disappointed anybody too much!

To be perfectly honest, I think the Finsters handled the new roommates better than I did. I was pretty much a wreck by the time the Dry Guys came back about noon on Friday to take all their stuff away, 76 hours later. But while the birds were definitely skittery, and very dirty, because apparently the living room is an Evil Place For Bath Taking, they did pretty well. Oh, the perch falling off the nest box threw them on Thursday evening, but by Friday morning they were on top and inside of it again. And half an hour after the Dry Guys left on Friday, they were down taking baths. Because apparently the kitchen is a Good Place For Bath Taking.

I even put the Evil Wheat Grass back into the Finsterium for a couple of hours on Friday. Because apparently, I am an Evil Meanie. But while the birds were wary, they were also interested. After all, they'd seen this stuff a few days earlier, and although it was weird and spiky and green, it hadn't actually reached out, grabbed them, and dragged them into its slimy innards. In fact, Ginger even fluttered and climbed down the back wall of the cage to nibble on one of the blades. (If you'll recall, she was the first of the then "new" birds to venture down to eat.)

I've put the Mildly Evil Wheat Grass in the cage for a few hours every day now, and slowly, all of the Finsters except possibly Oolong have checked it out. Well, she might have checked it out while I wasn't looking, it's hard to tell. Ginger was first, Szechwan (Pepper) second, Cassia third, and Cinnamon fourth. Cassia even landed on top of the blades of grass, to nibble on them. Lucky for her, she was light enough that she didn't sink down and get sucked into any slimy innards.

Bruce Of The Long Arms came back Monday night, so Tuesday morning he put the fresh, new nest box in, perch and all. So, we're pretty much back to normal. Until the Patch The Holes In The Ceilings Guy comes.

The Dry Guys came by at around noon today. They looked around, used their very cool sensor tool things (it's a technical term), and decided everything needed another 24 hours to dry.

As if that weren't bad enough, a few hours later the porch — that is, the perch — on the more popular plastic nest box FELL OFF. I can't believe that hot glue let me down. I have another nest box, all ready to pop into the Finsterium, but Bruce Of The Long Arms still isn't home. In fact, he won't be back until late Monday night. And even with the step stool, I just can't reach to put the box in that far, top corner.

Where is Bao Xishun when you need him?!

Those poor, flummoxed Finsters! At least they don't sleep in that box.

I have a near-life sized cardboard cutout of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. When it was still new, my friend T came over one evening to take care of the birds while I was out of town. She didn't know about Jean-Luc, nor did she know the bird lights were on timers. She let herself into the apartment, was startled by Jean-Luc, and the last of the bird lights went out.

Surprise!

I mention this story because, although having the Finsterium in the living room makes it easier to take a pretty picture of it, because all its walls are made of mesh, the picture loses much of its charm by being able to see all sorts of things through it. Jean-Luc being one. The fact that I have a near-life sized cardboard cutout of Captain Jean-Luc Picard is not something I'd necessarily planned on revealing to the entire internets, but here we are. Lucky for me, I don't have too many readers.

Have I described the Finsterium lately? The middle panel is one big door that I usually open wide when I'm cleaning up for the day. But in stressful times like these, I use just the bottom part of the door.

Now that they're in the living room, the Finsters are much more skittery than normal, they start hiding in their nest box quite early at night, and I'm not sure if they took a bath today (they usually take about three). But they all do seem to be eating — hopefully enough that they won't starve to death by the end of the ordeal. There have even been a couple of Hunka Hunka Burning Love songs from both males, although not many.

The new roommates are much louder. Here is the kitchen — the whole, entire kitchen.

Here's hoping this will all be over in less than 24 hours.

Guess what?!?!?! I just got a pygmy goat, a miniature pony with a little cart, and five fuzzy little kittens — two clinging from the ceiling in the kitchen, and three clinging from the ceiling in the bathroom with their sharp tiny claws!!!!!!

No. Wait. That's not it.

Actually, I have an upstairs neighbor who "fell asleep" and let his kitchen sink overflow. Plus an industrial-sized, very noisy dehumidifier, an industrial-sized, very noisy fan attached to a distributor box, two hoses stuck into the ceiling in the kitchen (conveniently located right over the sink), and three hoses stuck into the ceiling in the bathroom (one of which is conveniently located right over the toilet).

Plus, of course, five very unhappy Finsters. Their cage is in the living room. I have all the lights on their regular timers, I've kept the Evil Wheat Grass out of sight, I changed their water and poop paper using the Finsterium's small door so they couldn't fly out if they got spooked, and I'm staying out of the living room as much as possible, trying not to bother them. Although they're clearly disturbed by this all, they have snacked a little, and right now they're in a nest box, getting ready to go to sleep. I guess we'll see if we can all sleep through the noise.

Here's a picture of all the hoses in the bathroom. Look! The fixtures are pink!

I'll try to get pictures of the pygmy goat dehumidifier, miniature pony fan, and kitchen kittens kitchen hoses tomorrow. (That shouldn't be a problem. The Dry Guys don't come back to take the equipment away until Thursday. Sigh.)

I might even be able to get a pretty picture of the Finsterium in the living room!

Okay, now that's not true. Wheat grass is tasty, good for you, and makes a nice mating aid (click for a picture of Earl Grey showing off with a piece of wheat grass [pops]). But it's been a few years since I've been able to find small tubs — sold as "pet grass" — in local stores at a reasonable price. And apparently, now that it's unfamiliar, it's Evil.

How Evil? you ask. So Evil that for the four hours I had it in the Finsterium this morning, NOT A SINGLE BIRD went near it. This means that, although they went to the floor on the other side of the cage to eat soaked seeds and sip some water from the far side of the dish, the wheat grass, the corn next to it, and the lettuce next to that, were untouched. Nor did a single Finster dare to take a bath in the water dish.

Chickens.

Well, I knew they weren't starving, but after four hours I caved in and took the Evil thing out. Zip! Down to the corn! And I think I hear the splash of a bath now.

Don't worry, they overcame their fear of the Seedlings of Pure (Lettuce) Evil a few years ago. They'll figure out how to deal with the Evil Wheat Grass soon enough.

It's freaking cold out. Arctic front, wind chill factors, etc. Not as cold as some places, but cold enough to STAY. INSIDE. ALL. DAY. Reminding the Finsters how lucky they are to be inside. And popping out just long enough to feed the Wild Finster Cousins and squirrels.

Gratuitous squirrel photo, another lucky camera shot (although the overcast light outside helps).

After Wasabi (Peas) died, Jen mentioned that the event was sad for the other Finsters. Now, I try not to anthropomorphize my birds, but anyone who reads this blog knows that I've been worrying about that every day. But, even though I feel "I hope none of the Finsters are sad," I try to describe the worry differently. Like, "I hope none of the Finsters had paired up exclusively with Wasabi (Peas) and is feeling more vulnerable now that he's gone."

Subtle difference, eh? Grin. Interestingly, even Paul Theroux — who recently wrote an article about his geese, and against anthropomorphism, in the Smithsonian Magazine — didn't always get it quite right. It's hard not to assign human motives and feelings to animals that clearly have motives and feelings of their own. At least, it's hard not to use the same words. You can read Theroux's article online: see "Living With Geese" from the December, 2006 issue.

Oolong has been on my mind lately: she spent a lot of time with Earl Grey, and she spent most of the day sitting with Wasabi (Peas) the day before he died. Also, she spent the night with him in the hospital cage, since I didn't want Wasabi (Peas) to be sick, in an unfamiliar cage, and alone, all at the same time. But she seems to be doing fine.

Here she is with Szechwan (Pepper), on the (dirty) white concrete perch. The two of them were snoozing there yesterday afternoon until I woke them up by taking pictures.

You will probably notice that they are both very, very naked. Szechwan (Pepper) is completely bald, and is showing off the fact that his beak is too big for his head. Oolong is slowly getting all the feathers plucked off her head, from the back to the front. You can also see both of their left ears, click for a close up that has them both circled (pops). Don't let Szechwan (Pepper)'s dark-colored skin fool you: that's a little ear hole in the side of his head!

Truth is, I haven't noticed any patterns in the Finsters' pairings. Sometimes it's one pair, sometimes it's another, and I'm pretty sure they all sleep in the same nest box together. Szechwan (Pepper) is probably singing more often than Cinnamon, but both males are singing their Hunka Hunka Burning Love songs. So, while I suppose the other Finsters miss Wasabi (Peas), they don't seem sad about it. So, while I suppose the other Finsters know Wasabi (Peas) is gone, their behavior hasn't seemed to change because of it.

[By the way, this is a fantastic photograph. I have a five-year-old digital camera that has lots of nifty manual settings, and a 10X optical zoom. But the truth is, the Finsters don't pose long enough for me to use manual settings. I used the zoom for this photo; everything else, including the flash, was on auto. This time, I got lucky.]