on the plus side, having that work done this summer.  I don’t see what could prevent it.  I’m getting another paint estimate Friday.  first estimate I’ve gotten on anything since the floor guy was here.  it will also be the first time I’ve gotten an estimate on painting the entire interior.

I miss drywall work, somewhat.  not out of the question that I could do some more.  I think I will have them paint everything except the bathrooms.

the bathrooms generally could be a DIY job.  take my time doing one, then the other.  I will likely keep nothing except the upstairs sink.

I did go to the gym.  the gym was boring, but helped.

I did get some work done.

the sky is blue.  actually the sky is whitish and there are some blue clouds in it.  hmm.  hard to tell right now.

I can’t remember when trash night is.  last night.

bored BORED

* should probably go to gym

arnold got dumber.  he can’t go down into the new cage anymore.  not even if there are treats.

I’m like a bored piece of a plastic grocery bag that doesn’t have anything in it and isn’t even a bag because it’s just piece of a bag.

prayers… answered.  new 7/11 coming to bladensburg.  never again the indignity of walking several blocks for 7/11.

and as you can see from the headline, the wash city paper does not represent me.

not looking like much of a race anymore in the AL East.

I’m only had coffee twice in the last two weeks, I believe.  2-3 times.

there are 17.2 million women living alone in america and 13.9 million men living alone.  source.

the UPS man was here.  my amazing new recreational appliance arrived.  it does not disappoint.  it is flawless.  better than expected.  better than it is.

fphuck it, there will be one last epic paroxysm of home improvement.  it won’t be the last.

arnold became comfortable with the lower chamber sooner than expected, though he is not a big toy person.  he has new toys and he doesn’t interact with them much.  he is more about sights, people and sounds.  and treats.  a piece of wavy colorful furniture doesn’t seem to do much for him.  to put it another way, he seems to know the difference between toys and the real, non-toy things in themselves.  to put it another way, the distinction that humans make between toys and actual things is not important to a bird.  but it’s early.  this is pretty good iced cream.  I’m not a caramel person, but I don’t mind vanilla as long as there are some chocolate things in it.  it now seems inevitable that the orioles will win the AL east.  I’m not that impressed by the other teams.  is tampa bay obviously a better team?  I suppose I don’t know.  I don’t know much about the players but am vaguely aware of important injuries to yankees and uhhh a general sense that there are more talented players on other teams.  but the yankees pitching does not impress.  I don’t think pettite is going to work this time.  is there anything that menacing about the red sox staff?  what the orioles have lacked is good young players who get better and become all-stars.  and pitching of any sort.

arnold’s old cage is now a cupola on top of the new.  I took wire snips and snipped a rectangle in the roof of the new cage.  I dismantled the bottom of the old cage and sat it on top of the new cage.  it’s still difficult to get arnold to go into the new cage.  the automatic thing that happens when I bring him to the (old) cage and reach my hand around behind my head and he flees my hand and goes directly into the cage.  that thing doesn’t work with the new cage.  he just worms around and refuses to go in.  I have to place him in there by hand, and then he seems fine in there.  he doesn’t seem stressed once he’s in there.  but getting him in was hard, so I made the cupola.  he flies right in.  he has not ventured down through the hole.  he remains up top.  I saw him eyeing the hole.  it’s going to take a while for it to set in.  he’s had newspaper and piles of shit down there his whole life.

I don’t think he likes having air all around the cage.  hmm.  but he never minds having air around him when he’s out of the cage.   he is cheeping at me.  he wants out, and doesn’t realize the bottom cage is open and he can just go down there and go out.  it’s possible he’ll just never want to go down there.  I put some little pieces of bread in a dish down there.  he eyed it but didn’t go down.

arnold is in his new cage.  he resisted going in.  I had to put him in with my hand.  then he clung to the side for 5 minutes or so, pretty nervous.  then I dropped a little piece of bread in his tray on the other side of the cage, which is twice as wide as the old cage.  he then made his way across the dowel but only halfway, and then jumped onto the swing, which I located in approximately the analagous location as it was in the old cage, albeit turned 90 degrees.   the quarter turn didn’t confuse him.  he jumped onto it from the proper angle and hasn’t moved from the swing.  it took about 10-15 minutes for him to look relaxed.  now about an hour later he is more demonstrative, with a lot of self preening, biting his back, and shaking his wings.  still has not made a sound except some little nervous peeps when I made contact with the far side of the cage.  I left the front door open for a while and he was reaching his head down from the swing to figure out how much of me he could see from the perch.  now the door is closed.   the interior is about 2.5 times as high as the interior of the old cage, though he is actually a couple feet lower when he is on his perch, compared with the old cage, since the old cage was up on a dresser and this one is on castors.   this one is twice as wide as the old and twice as deep.  he has 4 dowels instead of one.   his toys have not arrived.  just the cage.  the cage arrived I think 2 or 3 days after I ordered it.  I ate a special cookie earlier.  a spatial.   that was 3 or 4 hrs ago.  I should now eat a bit of ordinary food.

I always thought there was merit in the work of… everything.  even before I got this new bag.

but now it’s clearer.  everything is impressive.  it’s just a matter of deciding what to be impressed by next.

my