Harley said "Look at that" this morning, apropos of nothing that I could tell. Of course, I wasn't watching him at the time, nor was I looking at what he might have been watching. He gets talkative sometimes, often in the morning after breakfast, and we play a "game" where he says something, or more likely makes a sound, and I try to repeat it. I don't always understand his words, and I can't whistle, so usually he wins this game. But it's fun to play.

The car event was from another day. Harley is fascinated by three closed doors near his cage: the bathroom, the closet, and the garage. I usually don't take him in the garage since the smell of gas is pretty strong, but sometimes you have to do new things, so here he is. We didn't actually drive him anywhere, although we could easily go for a loop around our quiet cul-de-sac. The first time I met Haley we all went for a car ride on a quiet, private road, and he really liked it. Considering how much time he spends sitting like a lump on a perch, it's pretty funny how much Harley likes to do new things.

So have you been paying any attention to what has been called — with no amount of exaggeration (really, none) — the country's worst financial disaster since the Great Depression?

Yeah. We haven't. Here's Harley chewing up a box:

Because sometimes, in the face of potential disaster, it's important to — you know — ignore reality. And so far, it seems that the Powers That Be (such as they are) have averted the dreadful repercussions that the country experienced several decades ago. Keep your fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, here is Harley at his nesty best:

The Joy of the Box. Drink it in. Relax.

I'm going away for a couple of days, so I thought I'd leave everyone with this sweet photo of Harley getting scritches. Aaaaaaaaah!

Unrelated to scritches, I learned a surprising thing tonight: Harley loves pomegranate even more than a bit of parmesan cheese. Being the owner of the plate from which Harley steals macaroni and cheese (almost) every Sunday night, I can hardly believe it! But there he was, eating two pomegranate arils, pinning the whole time, before even looking at the sliver of cheese I gave him. Well, I guess stranger things have happened....

Boxes are still some of Harley's favorite toys, and in many ways, his chewing habits still dictate what we eat and buy. Not so much because he's chewed through food boxes in the cupboard, but because sometimes he goes through several boxes in a day. Being something of a whole grains, low-impact kind of household, it can be a little hard to keep up. The four-inch square kraft boxes I get to make nest boxes for the Finsters (picture pops) are occasionally interesting, as are the tiny kraft boxes (picture pops) I pick up at crafty stores sometimes. I also got a case of 4" x 6" kraft boxes, which are the preferred size for basic box chewing, and are also useful for foraging toys — I'll have to get a picture the next time I make one of those. But the truth is, the kraft paper is a little thicker than Harley likes for regular, every-day chewing. So we make sacrifices.

We've started eating more breakfast cereal, and less toast, more crackers and less bread, more elbow noodles and less angel hair pasta, and I'm much less likely to use toilet paper to blow my nose. I used keep my eyes out for products with less packaging, but now I choose bird-friendly cardboard, if it's available.

Of course, as a girl, I have a few extra options. Like this:

and this:

Hey, whatever works.