I added five pictures to my photo album

Reading: Go Tell It on the Mountain

Moving: cramps are exercise enough

Watching: "Pride and Prejudice" (see above)

Listening: Blake singing in his box.

8 January 2001: Blake

Blake was overcome with lust early yesterday afternoon and didn't get over himself until sometime today. He saw my mittens. When I told Haitch that he loved my mittens more than anything he'd ever loved, she asked, "More than the Christmas dish towels?" We had to put those away the day we made cookies because he waxed savage and tunnel-visioned in their presence. At the time, I said no, he liked the towels more. But now they're away for the season but there's still lots more winter to go, lots more opportunities for the mittens. RDC is pleased he chose such an excellent gift. And then in the evening both of us were wearing SmartWool socks--I felt too cold for my usual white cotton socks--so Blake didn't draw a calm breath all night. We should feed him alum or saltpeter or whatever that was.

Because he'd had such a miserable afternoon and evening yesterday, I woke him up this morning so we could spend a nice half hour together eating cereal and having our heads pet and brushing our beaks. But all he wanted to do was to sit on my leg under the dining table and contemplate my besocked feet.

I guess my covering him up again when I went to work surprised him and he was tolerable again when RDC liberated him. At least until he spotted the Altoids tin on RDC's desk. He morphed into the Attackatiel. He has this thing about mint, which is how the beak-brushing thing started. We don't let him have any toothpaste, of course, but he finds the process fascinating, even flossing, though he's still scared of the individual strand before you get it between your teeth. Once you do and saw it back and forth, well, that's very interesting. I'm not sure he understands quite how strong Altoids are; the smell and the occasional smidge of Altoid dust is the closest he's yet gotten.

I'd be amused to see him take his first full bite of Altoid, though. The first time RDC brought his uncle to a Japanese restaurant, the latter picked up the whole wad of wasabi thinking it was a pistachio concoction. I imagine Blake's expression would be about the same.